The Broncos kicked the shit out of the Chargers last week in San Diego. As always, plenty of Broncos fans showed up to laugh at Philip Rivers, but a few fans almost didn’t make it in because stadium security was scared of their turbans. 10News San Diego caught up with Verinder Malhi, one of the men initially turned away, and he said his friends were told to take their turbans off if they wanted to come into the game:
“Three of my buddies, they had turbans on, and it (was like, you guys got to take the turbans off,” Mahli said.
They were finally allowed inside Qualcomm, but Malhi claims a security supervisor told him that if they ever come back, they cannot wear turbans.
“It’s bad, I mean, this is embarrassing for me, because we are Americans at the end of the day. And we are not supposed to be afraid of fellow Americans.”
Mahli and his friends apparently drove seven hours down from Fresno to get to the game. After the fans left their car to go into the stadium, another tailgater called the police to report that three turbaned men were moving stuff around in their trunk:
A tailgater took a photo of a bomb-sniffing dog checking Malhi’s vehicle. Police told 10News the dog cleared the car. Malhi said they had simply put a bag in the car after realizing they weren’t allowed to take it in the stadium.
This is both unsurprising and infuriating, and it came just days before a Sikh temple was vandalized in Buena Park, in Orange County. In that case, someone spray-painted “ISIS” on temple property.