Dotbusters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dotbusters was a street gang in Jersey City, New Jersey that attacked and threatened South Asians in the fall of 1987. The name originated from the fact that traditional Hindus wear a bindi (red dot) on their forehead.
A Jersey City gang who called themselves the "Dotbusters" published a letter in the newspaper stating that they would take any means necessary to drive the Indians out of Jersey City. Numerous racial incidents from vandalism to assault followed. Later that month, the Dotbusters used bricks to bludgeon and beat Navroze Mody, an Indian male, into a coma. No bias charges were brought against the killers.
The gang was primarily based in NY and NJ and did most of their atrocities in Jersey City, NJ. Numerous young men and women were attacked and harassed near the Central Ave, Jersey City Heights area during the period of 1983-1993 by the gang who many say was based out of a Hopkins Ave, Jersey City home. History is very vague and somewhat clouded on whom and what the gang actually went after, but numerous accounts of homes being robbed and men being attacked in the middle of night have been recorded. The gang gained its power through the lack of initial justice by the police department. It was rumored that the leaders of the gang had friends or family who were, and maybe still are, employed by the Jersey City Police Department. Up until 1989 it seemed like a one-way battle until a group of South Asians stood up and fought back. The history on the fight back is very unclear but what is known is the group that did fight back were Patel’s and lived on Hopkins Ave, within a 10-house radius of the gang’s headquarters. It is believed the gang disassembled once word got out that the South Asian community would no longer sit back and be attacked; small groups of South Asians began to fight back all over the state and outlining boroughs of NY.
Recently, the neighborhood has seen a major increase in development and no longer has a major issue of crime. Many new South Asian families have flourished in the area. To this day no one really knows who started the gang and what initial confrontation caused the gang to become.
