I feel there must be two complicating, contributing factors in understanding what happens.  The first is that anyone capable of assaulting another - tends to assault lots of others.  How closely are attacks on Latinos correlated to general rate of vicious attacks and intolerance?

The other issue is perceived lack of leadership.  Is there a sense that Congress' refusal to take a leadership position on immigration, illegal immigration, and changing neighborhoods - could be interpreted by constituents as a license or mandate to "rectify" "inequities" by vigilante means?  

I don't argue that vigilantes ever server society, but that twisted brutes could be reading Congress' inaction as implying that brutes should act locally on their own?  Clearly, there is no national consensus to embrace the millions of people living in the US, with a wink in this direction for lack of permission to enter, and a wink in that direction for refusing to deport or deny access to local and federal programs.

This is also not a new phenomenon in the US.  Each wave of immigrants has faced hardship, fear, hatred, and intolerance - until they abandon their home-language communities, until their command of English lets them participate in all of their community's affairs.

I understand that leaders in Latino and other communities enjoy a position of power within their community, based on their ability to publicize and address complaints and injustices.  But they enjoy a community leadership role that is not elected according to the prevailing laws, their position is comparable instead to a warlord or clan patriarch - and they delay and hinder the people they "lead" from achieving individual empowerment as citizens of the US, interacting each on their own behalf.

And this, I think is the danger of multilingual schools, ballots, election materials, and other publications.  It hampers and binds people into their non-English community, it requires them to communicate with our common government through interpreters - interpreters that may be honest, may be supremely competent, or might be influenced to bias the works they interpret for someone's benefit other than the individual citizen and voter.

Violence against anyone, anywhere, is intolerable. What I don't see is elected leadership ready and willing to address the fundamental and underlying issues - immigrants gathered into communities where English speakers and white folk are unwelcome or hated, and that intimidate each other into refraining from assimilation and taking advantage of social, legal, and economic opportunities, each on their own behalf.  The issue that so very many people living, employed, and known to be living in America are yet not completely citizens, are not in the process of being returned to their home country, nor are they in the process of having their citizenship clarified and formalized.  The issue that the history of our nation, much of the legal and legislative work, much of the first reports of news and focus of academic research and financial development is done in English, while so many living in America are either functionally illiterate or unlearned in English.  The issue that there are violent people criminally assaulting others.

America is a poorer nation today, because of all the Latinos living here that have not learned and mastered English.  The rest of America has been denied much of what they have to teach us.

And bullies and thugs harm those they associate with and those that harbor them as much as their more obvious victims - and they impose an appalling cost on their community of lost opportunities and direct expenses and suffering.

I am a U.S. citizen, but my parents are of Mexican and Puerto-Rican descent. I live in Lehigh county, PA. I moved in 1999 to this area from a large, pre-dominantly Hispanic urban area. It was a shock! I've never experienced as much racism and prejudice then when I first arrived here. And after ten years, I still feel this way about the area I live in. I thank God that I grew up in a home environment where there was equality across the board, and I thank God I am able to raise my children in this manner. No one is the BETTER race. Everyone deserves equal treatment.

I don't believe in hate crimes.

You do something wrong, for whatever reason, you get busted and serve time or pay a fine or both.

Period.

That is BS.  These aren't ANTI-LATINO crimes.  They are anti illegal immigrant crimes.

Nice Orwellian styled redefinition that I suppose works for you - If you are a racist.

strange how people forget that our ancestors emigrated to this coountry and the latinos look more like the original inhabitants than most of us do. I am an American citizen orf mostly scottish descent and I married a beautiful  Chinese woman and my latino friends would be horrified and angry at the people ranting about this subject like morons without a conscience, grow up, or would it be ok if someone did those things to you or your family?

I'm dismayed at the justifications other commenters have pulled from  . . . somewhere . . . to excuse violence of the most basic and unacceptable type, especially in a nation allegedly founded on principles of equality and democratic discourse.

I disagree that language is at the heart of the problem; though I do think that if the mainstream marginalizes a group of people, they can hardly then fairly turn around and complain about a 'separate' identity being formed or maintained.  

And I would agree that it's high time this country stopped its conflicting attitude - "we love 'em because we don't like to pay people living wages and we're too good for some kinds of work, but we hate 'em because after all, they're human beings who can't be treated like robots or cattle and therefore something besides exploitation is demanded in return."

But bottom line: if you harm the person coming toward you for no other reason than his race, or her gender, or his sexuality, if you would have let a white, straight male pass -- you've committed a hate crime.  Too bad if you don't like the designation , but that's what you've done, and that is a crime not only against the person, but against democracy, not to mention basic human rights.

People commit these crimes because they do not believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every human being - not even themselves.

Stop invading our country and throwing your trash everywhere.  Then you won't have any problems.

Do you know how many Americans are KILLED, RAPED, or ASSAULTED by an illegal immigrant every year.  

Approximately 28,000.

That's right.  So the illegals cry like little babies when we are the real victims.

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