Violence Shattering Immigrants’ Dreams : Convenience Store Clerks Need Safety Measures in Bid to Move Up Economic Ladder

Once, for immigrants seeking a toehold in America, there were railroads to build and mines to work. The work was hard, the conditions often primitive, but life was still better than at home. Above all was the dream that the children would have it better.

These days the bottom rung is often found at a burger joint, a gas station, a convenience store. Newcomers to a country they think of as a promised land even work the “graveyard shift,” toiling in the hours after midnight for less than $6 an hour.

By all accounts, Nirmal Singh was just such an ambitious immigrant. Last month he died in a La Habra convenience store shooting that police called “totally unprovoked.” The videotape was chilling. As one man chatted with Singh, his companion shot the clerk in the chest. Then the one who had been talking with Singh jumped the counter and took $100 from the cash register. Three years ago, another immigrant from India was fatally shot in a robbery at a Santa Ana convenience store.

Like many convenience store clerks, Singh emigrated from Punjab state in India. He was the father of three children and volunteered for the midnight shift to show he was a good worker. Punjab has been wracked by violence in recent years and many of its residents, known for a determined work ethic, have come to this country in search of peace and a better life.

After his death, relatives understandably called for improved security at convenience stores. They suggested guards, bulletproof windows and bulletproof vests for store employees. Owners of such convenience stores, which pose special security problems, should consider at least some measures. They must be balanced against cost, but bulletproof windows already protect gas station attendants at some locations.

Singh’s killing also worried other clerks. One woman who works until dawn at a Costa Mesa convenience store has friends check on her periodically during her shift. She is 23 years old, born in America, single and working to support herself and two daughters. At the end of the week she takes home $180. After paying rent and repaying a loan, she has $24 for other expenses.

She said she worries about being robbed. “But I have no choice. I have to work. I have no high school diploma, I have no skills.” But she does have a commendable spirit, a willingness to work for her money. That, by the way, is a recurring theme in much of the nation’s political rhetoric about how to help people move up the economic ladder.