In these times of growing hostility toward immigrants and Latinos and increasing numbers of attacks against them, civil rights organizations have also been threatened. The United States Department of Justice is doing the right thing in defending these organizations.
On Monday, a federal grand jury issued a fourteen-count indictment against Vincent Johnson, who allegedly sent a flood of threatening e-mails to employees of several Latino organizations. Johnson constantly refers to them as foreigners and as enemies of democracy, and highlights his readiness – better said, his enthusiasm – for using weapons to silence them.
In the e-mails cited in the accusation, Johnson takes aim at César Perales, among others. Having dedicated his life to the defense of the Puerto Rican community and Latino immigrants, Perales is no stranger to threats, but he said that the increase in the number of threats during the last few years has been surprising.
Some articles have described this case, trivially, as one of cyber-harassment. Nevertheless, Johnson is accused of having caused a credible fear of death and bodily harm, and of intimidating workers participating in legal activities to help Latinos. He even threatened Perales' daughter, Nina Perales, an experienced lawyer and a leader of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). "He knew who my daughter was and he said he would hurt her," said Perales.
Worst of all is that even after the police warned Johnson to stop harassing the PRLDEF (The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund) and MALDEF employees, he became yet more enraged. Besides the organizations already mentioned, Johnson also threatened the employees of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC).
Among the messages Johnson sent repeatedly:
"It would give me great pleasure to be at the funeral services for the members of (PRLDEF and other organizations) and piss on their graves."
"... And you and yours will die."
"I will not waste my time with legal work... what I'd like is to buy more ammunition to confront the growing chaos created by groups that favor illegal aliens. QEPD [acronym for R.I.P] (Cesar Perales and others) that are no friends of our democracy."
The Justice Departments Civil Rights Division is prosecuting the case against Johnson. We congratulate the Division on its serious and resolute action in defense of civil rights and the lives of the people who are trying to defend our democracy.
