Wisconsin Man Arrested for Attacking Two Men for Speaking "Spanish"
Last Saturday, Wisconsin's Dylan T. Grall assaulted two men who were speaking Hebrew, thinking that the two were conversing in Spanish.
Grall accosted the two men a little after 2 a..m. at North Henry Street in Madison, WI. He was under the impression that they were speaking Spanish, though the two were speaking Hebrew. He swore at them and demanded that they speak English, and then proceeded to punch both men in the face, leaving one with his eye swollen shut, and the other man on the ground due to the impact of the strike.
The 23-year-old suspect denied attacking the men, but did admit that he thought that the men were speaking Spanish, reported the police. He was arrested, and is facing two counts of battery with a hate crime "enhancer," which will increase the penalty of the crime. The incident was seen by an independent witness, who corroborated the victims' story.
Grall hails from a small predominately white community that is 44 miles from the state's capitol. Janesville, WI has a population of 64,575 people; 5.4 percent is Latino and 91.7 percent of the populous is white. One victim, 22, is from Skokie, IL, and the other victim, 23, is from Milwaukee, WI.
Hate crime is described as an occurrence when a perpetrator targets a victim because they belong to a certain racial group, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity.
FBI reports indicated in 2011, of the 6,222 hate crimes reported, 46.9 percent were said to be racially motivated; which is just a minuscule drop from the 48 percent reported in 2010.
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