The Maine Attorney General’s Office has received an injunction against a woman who assaulted a Portland parking officer and mocked him because of his nationality.
It was the second time the Attorney General’s Office has gotten an injunction against someone who used slurs against Yasin Ahmady, who came to the United States from Afghanistan as a political refugee more than 20 years ago.
In the most recent case, Freedom Hamlin is permanently banned from having contact with Ahmady or from using physical force or violence, or threatening to use physical force or violence, against anyone because of national origin, Assistant Attorney General Thom Harnett said on Wednesday.
Harnett said Ahmady was locking a wheel of Hamlin’s car with a device known as a “boot” on Feb. 28 on Casco Street when Hamlin kicked him in the foot, spat in his face and shouted, “Go back to the country you came from. You don’t belong here.”
Hamlin of Rockland pleaded no contest in Portland District Court to assaulting a city of Portland parking officer.
“It’s a hard time to be an Afghan in Portland, it would appear,” Harnett said. “At least with respect to certain people.”
Harnett received a similar injunction against Leslie Holmes, who lives in Portland, for making ethnic slurs against Ahmady last year.
That incident happened on Sept. 21, 2001, also while Ahmady was working.
In that case, Ahmady was writing a parking ticket when Holmes began screaming at him and using ethnic slurs, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Harnett said the Attorney General’s Office aggressively pursues violations of Maine’s Civil Rights Act.
“We absolutely take it seriously,” he said. “There’s really no excuse for any person who lives, works or visits Maine to feel physically or emotionally unsafe because of who they are.”
He said that the office generally brings between 20 and 30 formal actions each year, and that since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a different class of people is being victimized.
He said people who are Muslim – or perceived as Muslim – are being targeted in a way they were not before.
Neither Ahmady nor Hamlin could be reached for comment.
Ahmady’s boss at the Portland Parking Division, John Peverada, said that “our people do, from time to time, run into situations where people will spit at them and throw tomatoes.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
