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Hate crimes

Hate crimes are motivated by hostility or aggression toward any person because of race, color, sexual orientation, disability or religious beliefs. Every hour of every day a hate crime is committed in the United States.

Latinos, Victims Of Intolerance

Intolerance and racial prejudice have worsened across the country but especially in multi-ethnic and multiracial areas where Latinos are often the most vulnerable victims. The main target for bigotry against the Latino community is related to immigration, experts on the subject say.

2009 was a year plagued by hate. According to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), hate crimes, particularly toward Latinos, increased by 40%. Many of the victims were attacked just for being immigrants or because they were Latino.

For example, on February 26, 2009 the lives of many Chilean students changed in a matter of minutes. Dannie Roy Baker, 60, discharged his weapon without mercy against several foreign students participating in a student exchange program between the U.S. and Chile, in the state of Florida. Paul Nicholas Corp-Torres, 23, and Racine-Aragondona Balbantil 22, died instantly. Three other foreigners: Mauricio Sebastian Araiza-Suarez, 27, David Alonzo Francisco Javier Bilbao Meza and Copper-Fernandez, both 25, were seriously injured.

But 2008 was not any less violent. Carlos Orellana, a construction worker who lived in suburban New York was beaten during the summer by a group of young people just for speaking Spanish. His case didn’t really make headlines because it didn’t end in death, unlike the case of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant, who was stabbed to death last November at the hands of seven high school students.

“My heart is broken and his memories will live forever, my brother left a 9 year-old son, a 4 year-0old girl, and a heartbroken family.” These are the words of pain Sucuzhanay Diego, who lost his brother Joseph at the hands of the intolerance of some youths who attacked him with a bat because he was gay and Latino.

Note that in this climate of intolerance white supremacist violence is increasing due to the debate over illegal immigration and economic problems. These hate messages are seen on a larger scale using the Internet to recruit followers. In the background of all of this is the recognition that hate crimes are a growing problem, crimes fueled by intolerance and discrimination. We need appropriate legislation and instruments to combat hate crimes.

Identifying Hate Crimes

• The first thing to ask is whether the crime victimizes one person or an entire group, either by religion, nationality, sexual preference, etc. A crime caused by intolerance toward any group can, in addition to causing fear, cause humiliation to all members of the community.
• This type of behavior may attack or threaten not only the person but your property. Painting a swastika, burning a cross or throwing paint on a car or a wall are proof of that.
• Listen to the attacker. Any negative complaints against a person or racial group may indicate deeper anger to commit a crime.
• A hate crime does not necessarily mean murder, violent assault or destruction of property. For example, intimidation, insults and harassment are other ways to commit such crimes.

Recommendations

• Immediately report the incident to the police or your local community organizations.
• Write down the exact words, insults or threats. In addition to any other information that might be useful.
• Locate witnesses to the incident, if any.
• Preserve evidence of the crime on people or property.

You can also visit the following links:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/en-espanol

http://www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/index.html

http://www.cahro.org/index.html

http://www.hrc.org/5256.html

http://www.hrw.org/es

http://www.un.org/spanish/hr/

www.wecareforyouth.org

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Moving From Racial Hate Crimes To Forgiveness, Tolerance

Like other crimes, hate crimes leave tracks that cannot be erased, not only for the families of the victims of these crimes, but also in the communities where they live. Such crimes sow the seeds of fear, of being attacked for “being” one way or another .

The trend of recent years has been the steady increase in such crimes, illustrating that racial tensions exist between different groups that come together in this multiethnic society. One example is the fighting between Latinos and African-Americans, and between Latinos and Armenians.

“Raul was very good, quiet and studious. He had just a few days to turn 18 and did not deserve to die this way,” said Leticia Aguirre, the mother of one boy who died in such a crime. “The day of his birthday we were burying him. This crime has shattered our lives.”

It was the tensions between gangs of Latinos and Armenians in Glendale, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles, that resulted in the death of Raul Aguirre, a 17-year-old who was stabbed by two Armenian teenagers when he tired to defend another Latino boy who was being attacked near his school.

Raul did not belong to any gang. He worked and studied, and his passion was baseball. “It was May 5 and I had been at his school party; then suddenly we were in the hospital hoping he would survive the two stab wounds to the back and two more received in the heart,” says Leticia.

Such crimes are often not reported to authorities. Victims of such crimes mostly opt for silence. Under the impression that these crimes are not properly prosecuted, their perpetrators are not brought to justice they go unpunished and anonymous.

Seeking Tolerance and Forgiveness

But it wasn’t like that for the Aguirre family, who decided to bring to justice those responsible for the death of Raul in the incident because there were numerous witnesses. And while lawyers for the two young Armenians, who were then 15 and 18 years old, used delay tactics, five years after the crime they were sentenced to 18 and 25 years in prison.

“What I have lived I do not wish for the parents of the murderers of my son, who also suffer. When I met them did not understand why I had done what they did to my son — they never even knew him, he was just different. It was incomprehensible. The day of sentencing one of them wrote me a letter read it in court asking for forgiveness. Since then we write and he calls me me from prison.”

“We must learn to forgive and tolerate. This boy has graduated from high school and has promised that the day out of jail will go to visit the tomb of Raul. As it happens her mother accompanied me to visit my son.That is tolerance and forgiveness. ”

Over the years, Leticia, with the support of family and local activists, has advocated this message of tolerance in the midst of a community whose tensions have intensified.

Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of cultures in our world, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication and freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Tolerance is harmony in difference. Not only is it a moral duty, but also a political and legal requirement. Tolerance, the virtue that makes peace possible, contributes to replace the culture of war by a culture of peace. [Article 1.1 of the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, proclaimed and signed by the Member States of UNESCO on November 16, 1995] (2009)

Expediente Rojo Project (Code Red), is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the Latino community with information about crime in their communities. Visit Expediente Rojo’s website, follow them on Facebook or on Twitter @Expediente_Rojo.

[Photo By Josep Ma. Rasell]

A report from the Attorney General of California shows that anti-Latino hate crimes in that state are on the rise. A snippet from The Press-Enterprise shows that these crimes are up at least 50%:

There were 119 anti-Hispanic crimes in California in 2010, up nearly 50 percent from the 81 in 2009, the report found. The total number of hate crimes statewide rose slightly, from 1,107 to 1,110.

A press release from the AG noted:

 In 2010, there were 1,107 hate crime events reported statewide, and in 2009 the number of hate crimes reported statewide was 1,100…

The Attorney General’s report, “Hate Crime in California 2010″ was accumulated using data collection programs developed by the California Department of Justice, police agencies, and district attorney’s offices in all of the state’s 58 counties.

In 2010, there were 7 more reported hate crimes events than in 2009, an increase of 0.6 percent.

Anti-Jewish hate crimes decreased by 20 percent from the previous year, anti-black crimes decreased by 13.8 percent, and anti-gay crimes decreased by 10.8 percent. However, anti-Hispanic hate crimes increased 46.9 percent, from 81 in 2009 to 119 in 2010. 

A total of 361 hate crime cases were referred to prosecutors in 2010, fewer than the 479 cases referred in 2009. Of the 361 criminal cases that were filed, 230 were hate crimes. Of the 166 hate crimes with dispositions in 2010, there were 151 convictions (70 hate crime convictions and 81 other convictions).

This falls in line with a report we previously published, 62% of hate crime victims are Latino and 70% of the victims of LGBT hate crimes are people of color. It’s tragic that during what are already hard times some choose to vent their frustrations with violence against Latinos.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD.

[Photo By blakeemrys]