On July 5, 2011, Gary Thomas Kelley was sentenced to 27.5 years in prison for killing his long-time neighbor Juan Varela. On May 6, 2010, while Varela was watering his lawn, Kelley walked over to Varela called him a “wetback,” told him “go back to Mexico,” then fatally shot him. Varela was a third-generation American. The shooting took place in Phoenix, Arizona during a period of heated political debate and tension after the passage SB 1070 – the first of a rash of harsh and unfair anti-Latino measures in the country.

Local police initially characterized the shooting as the result of a drunken or longstanding dispute between neighbors and charged Kelley with second-degree murder and aggravated assault. The Varela family did not agree with the police’s depiction of the crime and demanded hate crime charges. At the time of the shooting, a family spokesperson stated, “This family wants justice. They’re asking that violence stop and that Gov. Brewer and other elected officials take responsibility for this hostile atmosphere they have created” by the immigration law and other legislation. Ultimately, Kelley received 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and 7.5 years for aggravated assault. There were no hate crime charges.

NHMC has been tracking hate speech in media and hate crimes against Latinos for several years now. We often wonder how many hate crimes are conveniently categorized as typical, run-of-the-mill offenses, rather than the bigoted, hate-fueled affronts that they actually are. In 2008, there was Luis Ramirez’s tragic case in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Ramirez was beaten to death by a group of teenagers who hurled racial slurs as they pounded and kicked him until he was foaming from the mouth. Town officials called it a street fight that went too far. It was thanks to MALDEF’s successful advocacy that his murder was eventually investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice as a hate crime.

According to a recent report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), most hate crimes are racially motivated, violent, and – most alarming – are not reported to the police. The BJS’s report analyzes hate crime data from their National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) for the years 2003-2009. NCVS is a survey conducted twice a year that captures victims’ accounts of crimes, whether they were reported to police or not. The report states that almost 90 percent of hate crimes were perceived to be motivated by racial or ethnic prejudice or both. In almost all hate crimes (98 percent), the offender used hate-related language against the victim. Nearly 87 percent of all hate crimes involved violence, and about 23 percent were serious violent crimes (rape/sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated assault). From 2003 to 2009, overall about 54% of all hate crime victimizations captured in the NCVS were NOT reported to the police. Of those reported, 26% were reported by the victim, 13% by someone else, and 6% in some other way (for example, police were present at the scene when the crime occurred). Almost half (45%) of violent hate crime victimizations that resulted in an injury were NOT reported to the police. Approximately 15% of hate crime victims who did not report the crime believed that the police would not want to be bothered or to get involved, would be inefficient and ineffective, or would cause trouble for the victim.

NHMC’s tracking of hate crimes against Latinos has provided an opportunity to collaborate with the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice. This agency has been commissioned to write a report, sponsored by Congressman José E. Serrano, on the underlying causes of hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants. NHMC has shared its work with the researchers, and connected those researchers with key experts on hate speech, hate groups and hate crimes. As Phase II of this project begins NHMC will connect the researchers with grassroots leaders in California, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, and Arizona. These states will receive additional scrutiny. Recently, Congressman Serrano highlighted the preliminary conclusions of the study, which showed that hate crimes against Latinos have been rising over the past several years. Serrano called the preliminary findings “deeply troubling” and “a call to action.”

Our fight against hate speech has unfortunately made us very knowledgeable on hate crimes against Latinos. We’ve collected information on some of the most heinous hate crimes against Latinos and shared it with the Department of Justice. We will continue to do this because, when faced with these terrible acts, we can’t just read the story and move on – we need to make sure that the authorities know about the crime and does something about it. We recently received a letter from Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez stating that the DOJ intends to continue their vigorous enforcement of federal civil rights statutes. We appreciate Perez’s work and commitment, but enforcement of civil rights statutes requires recognition of civil rights violations when they occur. This is the type of recognition that Juan Varela’s family never received.