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“We’re not down here just for Mexicans. We’re down here for terrorists.”

— Bill Bouton, a member of Civil Homeland Defense, one of several citizen groups that have taken up unofficially patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months. Bouton wore a red, white and blue baseball cap and had a .45 under his jacket.

HATE CRIME JUSTICE

White Supremacist to Pay Maximum Penalty

Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) and the family of hate crime victim Joseph Santos Ileto (1960-1999) held a press conference in front of APALC’s legal office to announce and explain a new civil rights ruling in the case of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Ileto’s murderer, Buford Furrow, on Feb. 6.

According to Dennis M. Wu, anti-discrimination project coordinator for APALC, a Department of Fair Employment and Housing commission ordered Furrow to pay $175,000 to the family of Ileto. Two thirds of the money was payment for causing Joseph Ileto emotional distress and physical harm, while the remaining third of the money was granted for violating his civil rights.

Joseph Ileto was murdered by Furrow on Aug. 10, 1999. Buford Furrow, on a shooting rampage, opened fire on the North Valley Jewish Community Center and injured several children and adults. Witnesses said he fled the scene and decided to shoot Ileto, “a target of opportunity,” nine times. Ileto, who was a mail carrier, was on the job. Five of the nine shots were fatal.

“[Furrow] is a self-proclaimed white supremacist of the Aryan nation,” Wu said. “He targeted Ileto because he couldn’t decide if he were a ‘chink’ or a ‘spic,’ [Furrow confessed].”

Currently, Furrow is in federal prison with two life sentences and an additional 150 years. The family brought a civil case against Furrow in 2000 requesting monetary penalties on top of his criminal charges. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing investigated the case and had reason to believe that this hate crime merited redress.

The Ileto family will be donating the money to the Joseph Santos Ileto Hate Crime Prevention Fellowship, which will fund advocates to work with the community to raise awareness of hate crimes and push for stronger hate crime legislation.

“There’s no amount of money that can replace my brother,” Ismael Ileto said. “At the same time, we’re very happy about the award and that he didn’t die in vain. We feel [the money] could be a resource for other victims.”

He adds, “J.O.S.E.P.H. I.L.E.T.O. is used as an acronym: Join our struggle, educate, prevent hate, instill love, equality to others.”

To donate money to the Joseph Santos Ileto Hate Crime Prevention Fellowship, contact Judy Kim, development director, at 213-977-7500 x229

— Ji Hyun Lim,
AsianWeek Staff Writer

PACIFIC NORTHWEST HATE

Southern Oregon copes with racist incidents

Southern Oregon was home to the state’s first branch of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and has more recently had a history as a hotbed for white supremacist groups.

The region’s racist reputation had been gradually fading until a recent spate of racially charged violence. Medford, Ore. police allege that National Guardsmen Andrew Patterson, Aaron St. James and Chadwick James Ritchie, 21, beat a homeless man around midnight Feb. 6, then attacked a motel owner they believed was an Arab. Ritchie committed suicide in the parking lot of a local restaurant later that night.

Investigators think the attacks were the latest in a string of racially motivated crimes this month. They linked Ritchie and Patterson to assaults on a homeless man Jan. 14 and charged Patterson in that incident. They also think the two men likely chased and threatened a group of black teenagers Jan. 13. That case is still under investigation. The incident has deepened what many minorities in the community say is a growing racial wound opened in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Motel owner Nick Patel said his race never seemed like a big deal until the terrorist attacks. “After Sept. people ask, ‘Are you a Pakistani?’ And I say, ‘No. I’m an Indian.’ They ask, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ And I say, ‘No. I’m a Hindu,’ ” he said.

Questions like those no longer surprise Ray Patel, another local motel owner who has lived in the United States for 40 years. Since moving to Medford in 1980, he says he has been mistaken for a Mexican, an Iranian, a Pakistani and an Afghan, and he expects to be misidentified as an Iraqi if the United States invades Iraq.

“Wherever the problem is with the United States and another country, we become them. We just have brown skin,” said Patel, a distant relative of Nick Patel. “I think the people who are behind Sept. 11 accomplished their goal. You feel it when you’re traveling and at the airport. They got into the American psyche.”

Racial polarization is not unique to Southern Oregon. Portland recorded at least two hate crimes in January, including the beating of a man of Italian descent who was apparently mistaken for an Arab and the firing of gunshots in black neighborhoods in northeast Portland by three young men and a teenage boy. In 2002, Oregon’s largest city recorded a total of 50 race- or ethnic-based crimes.

Experts say the mounting pressures of a sagging economy coupled with the uncertainties of terrorism and a looming war can breed increased racism and xenophobia.

“In times of economic and social transformation, there are just a lot of people who become anxiety ridden, and they strike out,” said Jay Mullen, a Southern Oregon University history professor who has lived in Medford since high school. “On top of that, [Attorney General] John Ashcroft is saying, ‘If you see anything suspicious, let us know.’ Once you start getting people scared, it’s hard to get that genie back in the bottle.”

TAKING ACTION

APA PAC Stands up for Scientists

Political group 80-20 declared last week its intention to protect Asian and Asian Pacific American scientists and engineers from “improper government investigative tactics.”

The board of directors of the political action committee 80-20, which raises money and support for political candidates friendly to APA communities, unanimously adopted the resolution at its annual board meeting in Foster City, Calif.

Members said they wanted to help APA scientists avoid the fate of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a physicist once accused of stealing what some termed the crown jewels of U.S. nuclear weapons science.

After being fired from Los Alamos National Laboratory and arrested in December 1999, Lee spent 279 days in solitary confinement before the government dropped 58 counts against him.

If 80-20’s board of directors suspects that another APA scientist is wrongfully imprisoned or unfairly treated during a federal investigation, the group said it will try to raise awareness through the media and politicians. The group, which is registered with the Federal Election Commission, said it has a mailing list of 600,000 people and 1,600 dues-paying members in the United States.