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People v. Rodriguez (Cal. Ct. App. - Nov. 26, 2008)

By Shaun Martin

Perhaps this case struck me harder than usual becuase my wife's a UNC fan (and graduate). Or maybe also because I know that, as a white guy, it wouldn't happen to me.

But while stopped at a red light at an intersection in Hayward in September of 2003, Francisco Sanchez -- who had just paid his union dues and wasn't afilliated with a gang in any way -- was murdered in cold blood for no reason other than an idiot Norteno gang member concluded that Sanchez was a member of a rival Sureno gang because he was wearing a blue UNC baseball cap.

The thought that you can be killed for utterly no reason other than that you're Hispanic and wearing the wrong color baseball cap seems even more profoundly wrong than the legions of other senseless killings I read about every day in the annals of the California Reporter.

A depressing, and telling, tale.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).