A Rorschach Test of Race and Crime

If readers ever confuse my efforts here for an ink blot, well, I can only hope it was due to a malfunction in the presses and not in my brain. Still, it’s remarkable the way certain stories act like a Rorschach test, striking different nerves in different people.

Such was the case last Tuesday with a tale that carried the headline “The Day I Looked Crime Straight in the Face.”

As some readers may recall, sweetie and I were returning home from dinner and noticed her 1986 Honda Prelude traveling in the opposite direction, a thief at the wheel. Impulsively we gave chase and pulled up alongside him at a red light, if only to get a good look at the creep. He then ran the light and we returned home to call the cops. Her car was found later, torched.

A sampling of e-mail:

* “Hey Scott, if you had a concealed gun permit, your girlfriend would have her car back in good condition except for a blood stain or two.”

* “Remember that scumbag had rights and he probably would of sued you for emotional distress for looking at him the wrong way.”

* “I applaud your reaction. . . . If we are too fearful to face what happens, it won’t matter if we have a car or we don’t: We won’t have the courage to leave the house in the first place!”

And then there was the West Hills man who was set off by a single word: Latino.

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*

A husky Latino male in his mid-20s with short-cropped hair and a goatee. He appeared to be wearing a patterned flannel shirt over a white T-shirt.

That’s how I described the man who looked back at me at that red light. And so Chuck was moved to write:

“I have been reading your column for several years and I found the theft of your girlfriend’s car to be unfortunately ironic. As I recall you were against Prop. 187. I and two of my Mexican partners were in favor of it and your car theft had a lot to do with it. When a large group of people engages in illegal activity and they are rewarded as illegal immigrants are, there is going to be retribution.”

And so on. At this point Chuck quoted statistics suggesting that 25% of all crime in California can be attributed to illegal immigrants and their children.

He continued: “If the argument is raised that it is against the Constitution to deny the children of these illegals who are born here the right to our services, then the Constitution should be amended as it was to repeal slavery. The honest man is now the slave to the criminal.”

We exchanged messages. I’m not sure about Chuck’s source or the accuracy of his statistics, but certainly many thousands of illegal immigrants commit crimes. Gov. Pete Wilson’s office has been quoted as saying that more than 20,000 illegal immigrants are being held in California prisons at a cost of $500 million a year. The Department of Justice cited a campaign of deportations as one cause of the nation’s declining crime rate.

Having noted that, however, it’s also worth remembering that Sheriff Sherman Block and many other law enforcement authorities opposed Proposition 187. They questioned its efficacy in stopping illegal immigration and reasoned that children tossed out of school are more likely, not less likely, to turn to crime.

But what really struck me about this reader’s reaction was how easily he leaped from the word Latino to the assumption of illegal immigrant. To Chuck, a Latino in a stolen cars adds up to illegal immigrant.

Many readers, I’m sure, would heartily agree with his every word. And many, I’m also sure, would conclude that Chuck is a bigot plain and simple (which is one reason I elected not to print his last name). Chuck seemed aware of this risk.

“America was built on the backs of immigrants. I do not have a problem with immigrants,” he continued. “I have a problem with the collateral and damaging effects of illegal immigration. One of these effects is a generation of young people who believe that breaking the law is acceptable. I would bet a year’s pay that your car thief was either illegal or the son of an illegal.”

Chuck, without citing a source, claims that “jail records” back him up.

As for this taxpayer, I hope authorities spend time and money nailing more robbers and murderers rather than trying to establish the immigration status of suspects’ parents.

At any rate, I’ll wager my retirement plan that home-grown car thieves still have a huge share of the enterprise. And while we’re at it, let’s see how many car thefts can be blamed on whites, blacks, Asians, whatever.

*

Experience has its own Rorschach effect. There was the experience of the car theft and the experience of reading my mail. Until I read Chuck’s letter, the question of whether the thief might have slipped into the country illegally, or be the son of someone who had, never crossed my mind. I saw a car thief who happened to be Latino.

Part of the reason, perhaps, is that the illegal immigrant I know best is the soul of goodness with three fine (American) kids. And part of it may be the sensibilities that come with my work. The standard convention in journalism is that you include the relevant facts. At what point does a description of a crime suspect become relevant? At what point does it perpetuate unfair stereotypes?

This is touchy area in the news racket, sometimes with comical effect. The other night, for example, a TV news program broadcast a report of a robbery suspect so detailed that it included the fact that he had “a bump on his head.” As for race, well, viewers were left guessing.

I’m sure, however, that people would consider my description of the car thief gratuitous. After all, thousands of young men in L.A. may roughly fit that description. But had I left it out, readers would be left wondering what I saw.

Reactions such as Chuck’s are one reason editors and reporters wrestle with these issues. Once upon a time, in a less enlightened and more demographically homogenous time, newspapers routinely published the race or ethnicity of crime suspects--unless they were white.

But I’d prefer to think that my reaction was pretty normal--that most people wouldn’t equate Latino car thief with illegal immigrant.

Today, after all, the plurality of L.A. County residents is Latino. Drive all over town and look at the motorists stopped at the red light next to you. There are, of course, plenty of Latino faces behind those steering wheels. Do you look over and wonder: Is that an illegal immigrant? Is that a stolen car?

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St. , Chatsworth, CA 91311, or via e-mail at [email protected] Please include a phone number.