And, one black suspected robber was killed by police. I thought I had written about this case but maybe I only read it and never posted on it.
From the Columbus Dispatch (Hat tip: Trish):
A clash last month between black and Bhutanese Nepali residents of a North Side apartment complex started when two men tried to rob one of the refugees, witnesses said.
Now, the city of Columbus is trying to set up a meeting between the Bhutanese Nepali community and other residents to try to discuss cultural differences and other simmering issues.
Read about the incident that brought on the need for a meeting.
By the time police arrived after an onlooker called 911, the melee had grown. One woman who saw the fight said that as many as 20 Bhutanese Nepali refugees were beating four black men.
She said cultural differences between the two groups have been causing tension in the complex. She did not want to be named for fear of retaliation.
Among complaints: Bhutanese Nepali children play in the carports seemingly without regard for traffic, and drivers have to shoo them out of the way. People are occasionally awakened in the early morning by drumming from what they believe to be religious ceremonies.
On the other hand, some Bhutanese Nepali residents said they have seen or heard of black residents hitting or harassing members of the immigrant group.
It really is the same old story we’ve been writing about for years. The resettlement agencies find some initially “welcoming” city or town and then overload the place so badly that tensions come to the surface from the sheer overload on an already financially challenged area (in dreadful economic times). There is also something fishy about these apartment complexes that are “favored” by resettlement agencies—probably some kind of cronyism going on!
The refugees*began arriving in Columbus in 2008. Originally from Nepal, they had moved to the nearby kingdom of Bhutan, where the growing ethnic minority was considered a threat and expelled. Those coming to America are among 100,000 Bhutanese Nepalis who have lived in refugee camps in Nepal for nearly two decades.
The first group of more than two dozen families was placed at the Breckenridge and another complex by the refugee agency US Together. By 2009, the immigrant community had grown to about 120. Since then, the community has grown to at least 500, most of whom live in the same North Side area.
While communities deal with the tension—the do-gooders rake in the bucks!
So who is US Together? When I googled them I came up with a post from where else?—RRW! in 2007 when they were bringing Iraqis to Columbus. An affiliate (aka subcontractor) of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society ( a member of the top 10, or is it 11? federal refugee contractors) they don’t appear to even have their own website.
I had to laugh, I couldn’t find any financials on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (if they are at the website they have it hidden well!) until I decided to try their initials—HIAS—and sure enough here is their most recent Form 990. Seems that HIAS (2009) had an income of $20,484,336 and $12,231,825 came from you—-the taxpayer!
US Together got about a million of that money. But, here is the kicker—salaries and benefits at this organization amounted to around $12 million dollars! HIAS’s CEO, Gideon Aronoff, racked in a cool $340,000 salary (with benefits) and the organization had at least another 8 executives making 6-figure salaries. Once again that old adage applies—doing well by doing good!
In case you are wondering, HIAS doesn’t just resettle Jews anymore—Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists are all welcome.
*To new readers: In 2007 the Bush Administration Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, gave the green light for the US to resettle 60,000 Bhutanese (really Nepalese) to the US over 5 years. Remember there is a Republican Open Borders faction whose members are convinced that we need a continuing stream of cheap immigrant labor.
The story with the Bhutanese is that they really aren’t Bhutanese but Nepalese who went to live in neighboring Bhutan, many at the beginning of the twentieth century, but then Bhutan had a resurgence of ethnic nationalism and wanted Bhutan for the Bhutanese and drove out the ‘foreigners.’ Nepal, a stable country, didn’t want to take its ethnic people back so they have lived in camps for upwards of 20 years. It is those people we are now resettling by the tens of thousands into our miserable economy.
I bet we have close to a hundred posts here at RRW on the Bhutanese/Nepalese… so just type ‘Bhutanese’ into our search function to learn more.