As more information (and video) emerges from Sunday's sword fight inside the Baba Makhan Shah Lubana Sikh Center in Queens, the blame game from the temple's leadership has begun. Though it is clear in the video of the incident that a rival faction walked into the Center looking for a fight (the Post's narration of the video calls it "like a scene out of West Side Story,") the why of the fighting, and why they got past the police waiting outside, remains an issue.
Temple President Jarnail Singh told the News the fight was over a dissident group of followers who don't want to see membership rolls opened at the temple. "We tried to open membership, and a group didn't want it. They want to fight it." Eventually seven individuals were arrested over the fighting.
And it isn't just the dissidents that Singh blames. He told the Post that the actual violence was the fault of the NYPD, who let the dissidents into the temple during services in the first place. "This is [NYPD officer] Mr. McCoy's fault," he said. "Mr. John let about 100 people inside with bats, swords and sticks to attack us." And why did he do that? They told him they wanted to pray. As McCoy told the tabloid, "If you're going to pray, you're allowed inside."
Meanwhile, this video suggests that praying was not the only thing on the agenda.
