After Pennsylvania Trial, Tensions Simmer Over Race

SHENANDOAH, Pa. — Ten days ago, shortly after two white teenagers were acquitted of the most serious charges in the beating death of Luís Ramírez, a Mexican immigrant, several white students at the local high school told Felix Bermejo that he would be the next person to get a beating, he says...The trial stemming from Mr. Ramírez’s death ended nearly two weeks ago, but tensions continue to boil in this small Pennsylvania coal town of 5,100 northwest of Philadelphia, where Mexicans and other Latinos have been settling in search of affordable housing and work in the mines or apple and peach farms. “It’s only gotten worse since the verdict,” said a white woman at a downtown store who asked that her name not be used because she was afraid of how her neighbors might react to her having talked to a reporter. “The whole thing has set us backwards, and if the trial had swung the other way, it would have just been the whites who were angry.” Closure in the matter is not likely to come soon. A federal investigation of the crime and the police’s handling of it is under way. The case has also become something of a cause célèbre for national Hispanic organizations, ... “This case is not just about what happened to Luís; it’s about what Latinos nationally are facing,” said John Amaya, a staff lawyer with Maldef, who added that Mr. Ramírez’s death was part of a larger trend of violence against Latinos. He pointed to federal crime statistics that show a 40 percent increase in attacks on Hispanics from 2003 to 2007.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/us/17penn.html?_r=1&th&emc=th