NYT: Q. Who is robbing and murdering the Latinos of Montgomery, Alabama?
A. It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
From the New York Times news section:
A Deadly Robbery Reveals a Pattern of Targeting Latinos in Alabama’s Capital
Latinos in Montgomery, Ala., said they had been sounding the alarm for months, describing the killings at a grocery store as the culmination of unchecked violence.
By Christina Morales
Christina Morales traveled to Montgomery, Ala., where she talked to more than a dozen Latino business owners, community activists and residents in Spanish.
July 22, 2024
… They had been deeply unsettled by a string of violent robberies at other nearby Latino-owned businesses in Montgomery, Ala. — a restaurant worker shot in the hip after he took out the trash, an armed man terrifying customers at a Mexican ice cream store.
Only minutes before closing time, two armed men entered Tienda Los Hermanos, opened fire and killed Mr. López García, his father and a family friend.
The NYT offers no description of the killers other than they were men and they were armed.
But in interviews, Latino residents, activists and business owners said they had been sounding the alarm for months, describing the killings at Tienda Los Hermanos as the predictable culmination of an unchecked pattern of robberies and burglaries.
By whom?
“We’re all afraid,” said Maria Morales, who with her husband owns a Mexican ice cream shop, La Moraleja. The store has been robbed three times since they opened it last year; the first time was in April, when robbers pointed guns at two of their teenage daughters.
Robberies have surged this year across Montgomery, with city data showing that there were almost 300 robberies in the first half of this year, compared with about 403 in all of 2023. If the trend continues, the city could have 50 percent more robberies this year than in 2023.
Though the city says it does not track crimes by the victims’ race or ethnicity, officials have acknowledged that Latino businesses in particular have been targeted, in part because they often trade primarily in cash.
…. Many of the robberies remain unsolved, though a suspect, Jarques Butler, has been charged in the killings of Mr. López García; his father, Ramiro Romero López Temaj; and George Elijah Jr., a family friend and the person who had sold the promise ring to Mr. López García. …
None of the nine photos in the NYT article are of Jarques Butler or any other suspects.
Yet, it was easy for me to find a mugshot of Jarques on WSFA, a local news channel:
Words that did not appear in this 33 paragraph New York Times story about “a pattern of targeting Latinos” in Montgomery: “black” or “African.”
The NYT readers are wondering too: top comment:
“The article states that Montgomery does not categorize the race or ethnicity of those targeted by thieves. Do they categorize the thieves by race or ethnicity? I ask because if Latinos are being targeted, who is doing the targeting?”
Reply to top comment:
“great point. And, the answer is clear, because if it were one particular ethic group, this would be an article about ‘racist hate crimes.’
Because you do not see that language, you have your answer”
I think the willingness of Hispanics to replace blacks, and the unwillingness of blacks to be replaced will become an ever more common story in the days to come.