One year ago, Mizanur Rahman, a Brooklyn photo-journalist from Bangladesh, became a victim of senseless violence. On August 17, the Ozone Park, Brooklyn intersection of Forbell Street and Liberty Avenue—the place where the young journalist was killed—was named Mizanur Rahman Way.

Rahman fell prey to the barbarism of a hate crime. These crimes have spiked since the terrorist attacks of September 11 and have been committed against South Asians and Muslims in New York and many other places in the United States.

On August 17, 2002, Ozone Park saw a street fight between a group of Latino and Bangladeshi youth over the possession of a bicycle that had rammed through a Hispanic street fair. The same night a group of assailants waited outside a nearby subway station to "get even.” When Rahman passed them on his way home from work the men attacked him with a baseball bat and broke his skull. Rahman died on the spot.

At the event renaming the street, a number of community leaders were present. They included City Councilman Erik M. Dilan (D-Bushwick), Bangladesh Consul General Rafik Ahmed Khan and Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Sayu Bhojwani. Bhojwani read the mayor's message remembering Rahman as a talented photo journalist and an "exemplary immigrant." Bloomberg's message expressed sorrow for the crime and asked for strength and solidarity in the immigrant community.

Mizanur Rahman Way is the first New York street named after an immigrant from Bangladesh.