Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Latino Gang Members Arrested For Alleged Hate Crimes Against Black Family

Two Hispanic gang members were arrested last Thursday on allegations they had 15 to 20 gang members surround a house owned by an African-American family and tell them they couldn’t live in the area, according to the LA Times.

On December 31st, while one of the family members was walking home in Compton, men reportedly approached him in an SUV. According to police, they told him they were with a local gang and that he couldn’t live in the area because he was Black. The men then began allegedly hurling racist insults at the man.

Scared from the threats, the man tried running away, but not before the men allegedly left their car and began attacking him with metal pipes. One suspect, 21-year-old Efren Marquez (pictured above right), is alleged to have pointed a gun at the man while 19-year-old Jeffrey Aguilar (pictured above left) reportedly beat him with a pipe.

Once the attack ended, the gangsters escaped in their SUV, but they reportedly returned 30 minutes later with additional gang members, surrounding the house where the man lived, shouting racial slurs, and telling its inhabitants that Blacks were not allowed in their neighborhood. One member allegedly even threw a beer bottle through the front window.

And the racist harassment didn’t stop there.

The group reportedly continued to drive by the house daily, yelling slurs at the family until they eventually moved out, even though they had just moved to the residence on New Year’s. And according to Lt. Richard Westin, the gang is known for their racist hate crimes, “This gang has always made it clear they have a racial hatred for Black people. They repeatedly used racial epithets, they use racial hatred graffiti and they tag up the black church a lot.”

Sheriff Capt. Mike Parker added that the victims are your “typical American family” and that the incident is “unsettling at the very least.”

Since the alleged incident, Marquez and Aguilar have been charged with a hate crime committed for the purpose of violation of civil rights with ability to commit violent injury on another.

Source

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