comment by Jerry Gordon

by Chris Echegaray, The Nashville Tennessean, July 28, 2008

Family of slain Omid Market merchant fears crime will rise

Ebadollah Ghorbani called his business, Omid Market, “hope” in his native Farsi.

Hope is what fueled his flight from Iran 13 years ago to Nashville — a city chosen on a whim. He befriended customers by offering a line of credit and sponsoring a local soccer team.

And he dreamed of a better future for his four children than they could have had in Tehran.

Then Ghorbani, 53, was fatally shot during a robbery on Nov. 20, 2006, and a Davidson County jury acquitted one of the alleged accomplices on Wednesday.

For his family, hope is diminished. They see in the verdict an anti-immigrant sentiment that will encourage robbers to target foreign-born business owners.

“It’s telling these criminals, ‘Get these people because there is no law against that,’ ” said Meysam Ghorbani, 27, Ebadollah Ghorbani’s son. “It’s a shameful thing. Was it because my father is an immigrant or something else?”

Jurors declined to comment after the verdict.

While the evidence is only anecdotal, authorities agree these independent stores face more attacks than chain-owned markets known for video security. The robbery at Omid Market was caught on surveillance video.

“We do get a lot of these robberies,” says Metro detective Brad Corcoran, the lead investigator in the Ghorbani murder case. “They (robbers) may feel like there’s less security in the mom-and-pop operations. But security cameras are so inexpensive that a lot of these places have them. In the chain stores, they expect to have them so they don’t go there.”

Store owners say dozens of robberies at immigrant-owned businesses have increased and will continue to surge in light of the faltering economy.

Maria Ramos, owner of California Fashion on Nolensville Road, stared at the barrel of a gun during a robbery more than two years ago.

“They left to rob another store — a Latino-owned store — and they got into a shootout with the police,” she said.

The robbery spawned the fortification of her store with iron bars and the formation of a Nolensville Road business association. Ramos, who opened her store in 2003, thinks the robberies stem from the overall failing economy and a rise in criminal activity.

“I don’t think it’s racism causing this,” she said. “It’s a rise in delinquency and criminal behavior.”

Still, there’s a need to protect immigrant merchants so they can have the same chance for success as those decades ago, said the Rev. Joseph Breen, pastor of St. Edward Catholic Church who serves many immigrants.

“A lot of our grandparents came from early Europe, mine from Ireland,” Breen says. “We have done so well and made it better. I see how the new immigrants are doing. I see it as payback. We owe them the same thing.”
Family wants justice. (Continue Reading this Article)