Robbers target Hispanics as ideal robbery victims

By KATE BRUMBACK

Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA — In a quest for easy money, Derrick Gooden and Keith Dixon committed a string of robberies over a two-year period, mostly targeting Hispanic victims they believed were likely to have cash on hand.

Their crime spree turned deadly in March 2006 when Sejio Pineda, a Mexican immigrant and construction worker, was shot and killed during a robbery in the parking lot of his apartment complex. Both men pleaded guilty earlier this year to murder, assault, robbery and weapons charges in Pineda's death and six other armed robberies, most of which targeted Hispanics.

Law enforcement officials around the country say they have noticed a spike in recent years of robbers preying on Hispanics. They say Hispanics have become targets because they often carry cash, are less likely to report crimes, and witnesses and victims are likely to be tough to find or reluctant to testify.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office prosecuted the case, said Gooden and Dixon were likely responsible for robbing dozens of people in similar incidents over two years.

"We have seen a really steady increase over the last 10 years particularly," said Howard, who has worked as a prosecutor in Atlanta since 1976, when few Hispanics lived in metro Atlanta.

A report on crime victims released in September by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that in 2008 Hispanics were victimized by robbers at a higher rate than people of other ethnic backgrounds, a trend consistent with previous years. For every 1,000 Hispanics over 12 years old, 3.4 were robbed in 2008, and for every 1,000 non-Hispanics, 2 were robbed that year, according to the study.

Justice Department numbers show that 21 percent of all robbery victims in 2008 were Hispanic, while U.S. Census Bureau figures show Hispanics made up only about 15 percent of the total population in July 2008. In comparison, in 2003, Hispanics made up 16 percent of robbery victims and accounted for about 14 percent of the total population.

Some law enforcement officials believe the figures understate the problem since Hispanics are less likely to report robberies.

For Hispanics in the country illegally, calling police to report a crime could end up triggering deportation proceedings. Hugo Arnoldo, a 30-year-old restaurant worker from Guatemala, said he's not sure what he'd do if he were a crime victim.

"If someone just took my money and left, I probably wouldn't call the police," he said in Spanish. "But if someone stole my car or robbed my house, I might take the chance of calling the police."

Arnoldo, who lives in suburban Atlanta, said he had a friend who was recently robbed and didn't call the police because he figured there was little they could do and he didn't want to risk deportation.

"It's a big problem," Arnoldo said. "But I don't know what we can do about it. If you don't have papers, you're probably going to be too scared to call the police."

Though robbers are zeroing in on people who look Hispanic, law enforcement officials don't believe the muggings are racially motivated, but rather crimes of opportunity.

As more Americans rely almost exclusively on credit and debit cards and carry little cash, Hispanic immigrants frequently have money on them. Many who are here illegally don't have the proper documents to open a bank account, and others may mistrust banks.

Robbers stake out check cashing and wire transfer businesses on payday to snag victims who are getting their pay or sending money to relatives back home, law enforcement officials said. They also lie in wait outside bars and restaurants frequented by Hispanics or in the parking lots of apartment complexes with high concentrations of Hispanic residents.

Robbers typically come away with sums in only the hundreds of dollars, very rarely more than a thousand dollars, said William Petty of the Austin Police Department, in Texas.

But robbers who weigh the risks against the potential gain often still decide it's worth it. The reasoning is similar to that used by people who rob small businesses in poor neighborhoods even though the haul is likely to be smaller than elsewhere, Howard said.

"They believe that, first of all, the victims themselves won't report and, second, even if they do, law enforcement or prosecutors won't pursue those cases as vigorously," he said.

In the Pineda case, Gooden's girlfriend said in a videotaped statement that Gooden went to apartments in Sandy Springs looking to rob "Mexican guys." She later told prosecutors that was because Gooden thought they would have cash. Gooden is serving a life sentence plus five years and Dixon is serving life in prison plus ten, each with the possibility of parole in 30 years.

Often law enforcement officers and prosecutors pursuing these cases become frustrated because of a lack of cooperation from the Hispanic immigrant community.

"We've had a number of cases where we had made arrests and the suspects confessed that they robbed Hispanics because they knew that if they don't have documentation, they aren't likely to call police," said Blanca Kling, the Hispanic liaison for the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland, which has seen a rise in such robberies in recent years.

Around the country, many local law enforcement agencies, recognizing the importance of community cooperation in solving crimes, have made specific efforts to reach out to Hispanic immigrants. The efforts include hiring liaison officers, running ad campaigns in local Spanish-language media outlets and holding public information meetings.

An outreach campaign in Austin a few years ago called "Basta Ya!" or "Enough Already," sought to warn Hispanic immigrants that robbers were targeting them and encouraged them to report robberies to police. Petty said the campaign was successful but that there's a steady stream of new immigrants, and thus new potential targets, flowing into Texas.

An effort in Atlanta was less successful. Howard, the district attorney, and Police Chief Richard Pennington organized a heavily publicized town hall meeting three years ago at a church in a Latin American community to educate people about crime targeting immigrants. Not a single person showed up. A minister at the church said people in the community were afraid the meeting was a front for an immigration sting.

Even those who are here legally may be unlikely to report crimes because of a mistrust of law enforcement developed after years of experience with corrupt authorities in their own countries.

"People coming from Mexico and Central America often don't have the same trust of law enforcement that Americans might have," said Mary Odem, a professor at Emory University who studies Latin American immigration.