Youth Accused of Racial Intimidation Against Indian Man in Montana

A 21-year-old man in Helena, Montana, is facing a criminal charge after allegedly shoving a man of Indian origin and telling him to return to his home country.

Jaxton Tate Collins was presented in the Lewis and Clark County District Court on October 27. He is accused of malicious intimidation or harassment.

According to court papers, the victim had been walking downtown with friends when a man wearing an orange shirt and a large Christian cross approached a member of the group. That friend is of Indian origin and wears a turban or a cap.

The affidavit alleges that Collins pushed the friend with both hands and told him to go back to his country. Witnesses described the incident as frightening and characterised it as an assault.

Police later located Collins nearby. He told officers he had been drinking at a downtown bar and admitted that, after leaving, he angrily told the victim to go back to his country. He denied that he pushed the man.

Under Montana law, a person commits malicious intimidation or harassment when, intentionally or knowing it would frighten, alarm, threaten, distress or offend, they cause bodily injury, create a reasonable fear of such injury, or damage property, targeting someone based on race, creed, religion, color, national origin, or civil or human rights activity.

According to Montana Code Annotated section 45-5-221, a person convicted of this offense may face up to five years in state prison, a fine of up to 5,000 dollars, or both penalties.

The arrest comes amid a series of attacks this year on people of Indian and South Asian descent in the United States. Community groups have connected these events to increasingly hostile rhetoric directed at immigrants. The Indian-American community in Montana is very small.