Hate Murder in Arizona?

Given the racial tensions in Arizona surrounding its new immigration law, is this report from the Arizona Republic the least bit surprising:

“Family members of a south Phoenix father slain last week amid protests over Arizona’s strict immigration-enforcement law said Friday they want police and prosecutors to classify the case as an anti-Hispanic hate crime. Juan Varela, 44, was watering a tree in his front yard May 6 when police said his neighbor confronted him, pointed a snub-nosed revolver at his face, and fatally wounded him with a single shot to the neck. Investigators said the neighbor, who was arrested immediately after the shooting, repeated a racial slur several times and told Varela to “go back to Mexico” or he would die. Phoenix police Bias Crimes Unit investigators are looking into the allegations of a hate crime.”

Not that long ago, Latino immigrants were killed in Shenandoah, PA, not far from Hazleton and its highly publicizied anti-immigrant ordinance, and Long Island, where local county officials had railed on the costs of immigrants to the county.   Hate crimes directed at Latinos, not coincidentally, have increased over the last few years as the nation as debated immigration reform.  The killing of Juan Varela in Arizona may be the latest chapter in this sordid story of anti-immigrant, anti-Latino — and unfortunately may not be the last.

KJ