Ravi Bhalla, the first Sikh mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, says he has received letters in the mail asking him to resign and threatening his life along with his family’s.
But he is standing strong, saying hate is not welcome in his city. “I’m very proud to lead this city as an American of Sikh background,” he told CBS New York in an interview.
Bhalla, a turban wearing practising Sikh who won the mayoral election in 2017 and won again in 2021 after running unopposed says he’s been the target of threatening messages for more than a year.
“Our family began receiving a series of letters in the mail,” he told CBS. The first, more than a year ago, asked him to resign, and then a second letter threatened his life. Then came the third.
“The third threat, which was the most jolting, came soon thereafter and said that, ‘This is your last warning. If you don’t resign immediately, we will kill you, we’ll kill your wife, we’ll kill your children.'”
One letter reads, “It’s time to kill you.” The rest of it is too disturbing to share, according to CBS.
“There was a lot of angst, anger, a lot of hate, combined with actual threats upon my life and the life of my children and my wife,” Bhalla was quoted as saying.
Law enforcement agencies have provided the mayor with 24-hour security, including for his two children at school.
“My biggest concern was for my kids. I signed up to be mayor, but my kids didn’t sign up to this type of behavior,” Bhalla said.
Bhalla says during the same time he was receiving these threatening emails, his neighbors, his brother and a few city colleagues began receiving packages with sexually explicit and threatening materials.
He says the person responsible for those was caught and charged, but the person behind the threatening letters is still out there.
READ: Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla receives death threats (February 19, 2018)
“As a Sikh-American, I’m a proud American and I want people to be treated equally,” Bhalla said when asked how he felt over such an experience as a political figure 22 years after 9/11 when Sikh-Americans endured a backlash.
His mission for inclusion and education is stronger than ever in Hoboken, Bhalla told CBS. “There still is a strain of extremism in America, and it’s just unfortunate to see that small strain is somewhere in Hoboken, as well.”
“And I think that’s what needs to be called out and that’s what people need to know about so that we can eventually put an end to it through education and through love,” he said.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Bhalla has specialized as a civil rights lawyer, earning national recognition from The New York Times for his legal advocacy after suffering a violation of his own constitutional and civil rights during a jail visit to a client.
The incident motivated Bhalla to lead a successful campaign to reform the federal government’s visitation policies at prisons nationwide.
He served for eight years on the Hoboken City Council before becoming the mayor and is now contemplating running against first-term Congressman Rob Menendez from New Jersey’s 8th district.