11 Year Old Attacked for Being Latino

The reports are sketchy and few but enough is known to cause outrage.

Police in Petaluma California, roughly 40 miles north of San Francisco, report that an 11 year old Latino boy was attacked by two persons, believed to be between 13 and 18 years old. The boy was hit on the left side of his face with an unknown object. The attackers were on bicycles and as they rode away, according to the Mercurynews.com, “one of the boys cursed at the victim and told him to ‘go back to your country, you (expletive) Mexican,’ police said.”  The rest of the report concerns descriptions of the attackers. There is no report of the condition of the boy.

What’s known is that the attack happened near the boy’s school, La Tercera Elementary School, and that it happened around the time of the first bell, at about 8:20 a.m.

There have been many reports of racially motivated attacks against Latinos across the country, some of which have been fatal. But something about this incident hit close to home. The boy is 11 years old, he was apparently walking to school, and this happened to him just because he is Latino. It’s enough to drive any father to rage. It’s sad and it’s senseless.

We’ll follow the story for you and keep you posted.