On Saturday, Oct. 24, Fresno City Council candidate and Central Unified trustee Naindeep Singh was pulled over by a motorcycle officer on the basis of an expired vehicle registration, for which he claimed he had already paid. During the stop, the officer was under suspicion that Singh was under the influence of substances, and in a statement they later released said Singh was arrested for charges for Driving Under the Influence of a Drug, reported Your Central Valley. Singh fully complied with the officer throughout this experience and underwent a toxicology exam at the Community Regional Medical Center. News of Singh’s arrest soon got out to the media, and the headlines came rolling out.
As a result of these headlines, Singh held a press conference outside the Tower Theater on Monday, Oct. 26, to stay transparent with the public and maintain his innocence.
“I have not yet received the law enforcement results, and I’m absolutely looking forward for them to come, because I believe, no, I know I’m going to be fully exonerated,” he said at the press conference.
Exonerated he was, and because of this development, Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto – who had originally stood firmly on the arrest – apologized Tuesday night after his toxicology report came back negative.
“We are not sorry for making a legitimate effort to keep our community safe,” Casto said.
As community members, we have to question the circumstances under which this arrest occurred. The media is a powerful outlet that influences people and how they form their perceptions of the world around them. Regarding this campaign season, awareness of the candidates on our ballot and their character is essential to voters as they decide who to support. Policy is how they decide who has earned their vote, alongside charisma, which for many is equally important. Alongside a candidate’s character, the information that is made available to the public plays a significant role in the way that people cast their votes. Covert deception of the truth is not what any voter would like to mistakenly take into consideration when making decisions on important candidates; we always want the truth.
These allegations came out approximately a week before election day and while voters were already filling out their ballots and mailing them in. It’s easy to wonder what would’ve happened if Singh did not take the initiative to take his own toxicology report at the same hospital, and instead relied on the Fresno PD to put out the truth promptly. He definitely would have had less credibility for his claims, and fewer supporters when he first claimed his innocence.
There are two candidates running for Fresno City Council District 1: Singh and Rob Fuentes. When the headlines came out about Deep’s DUI allegations, Fuentes promptly released a statement in response to his opponent’s arrest.
“Naindeep Singh must answer for this incident and the questions it raises about his judgment. Step one: he should immediately withdraw from the race for city council,” he said.
Despite later retracting his statement after Singh was exonerated, Fuentes first expressed his desire for Singh to drop out of the race without a full investigation into whether or not he was under the influence of any substances and while his decisive toxicology report was still pending. Fuentes’ statement was made before any defining evidence was publicized in favor or against Singh’s innocence had been published. This comes at a time when Fuentes has faced criticism for not attending numerous community forums, which Singh publicly called him out for on Instagram. These forums would have been great opportunities for him to provide public comments about his viewpoints, but suddenly, when his opponent is under fire, he can speak up to “protect” his community.
It is absolutely ridiculous that allegations of this nature gained so much traction a week before elections. Additionally, we as a community have to question the mailers that came out of this false allegation. Frankly, the timing is too good; they came out immediately when the news broke to the public ready to be mailed out. The media’s quick response to the news that Singh had been arrested under suspicion of DUI is also suspicious – the headlines were instantaneous.
As a community we should question baseless accusations upfront and ask for full transparency. There is one question that has not been answered yet: how and why was Singh’s arrest publicized so quickly? With questions like this floating around right before election day, I urge voters to look at the facts before casting their votes or mailing in their ballots, and continue to cast suspicion upon what feels like corruption even as the opposition claims it’s “coincidence.”
