An East Palo Alto man has been charged with hate crimes and robberies after a two-month spree during which he is accused of targeting at least 14 South Asian women, tearing necklaces off their necks and speeding away in a getaway car.
In several of the brazen robberies this year, prosecutors said Lathan Johnson, 37, injured the women, who ranged in age from 50-73.
The Santa Clara Police Department and the U.S. Marshal’s Office apprehended Johnson, but the first agency to tie him to the crimes was the Milpitas Police Department. They were able to connect him to a getaway car, according to a statement by District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
Johnson was to be arraigned on the hate crime charges at 9am today in the Hall of Justice in San Jose. He faces prison time, if convicted.
“I say to our South Asian community that anyone who targets and attacks you will be arrested and treated with the utmost severity under our law,” Rosen said. “Santa Clara County’s precious diversity is our strength, our superpower – not a criminal opportunity.”
The spree began in June. Over the next weeks, South Asian women – almost always wearing a sari, bindi, or other types of ethnic attire, were targeted in San Jose, Milpitas, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, according to a statement released by Rosen’s office.
In one case, the victim was walking with her husband down a Milpitas street when Johnson approached and asked for directions. The defendant then walked up behind them and pushed the woman to the ground and punched her husband in the face and then pushed him to the ground. He ripped a thousand-dollar necklace off the woman’s neck and jumped into a car and sped away. The woman suffered a broken wrist, and her husband was treated for a possible broken nose.
The estimated worth of all the stolen necklaces is about $35,000.
Late last year, the Santa Clara DA’s Office charged a group of men with hate crimes and robbery for targeting Asian women during a spree of purse snatchings. Those cases are pending.
Lathan Johnson … things that make you go hmmmmm
Another one of those MAGA hat wearing Trump supporters?
This “White Supremacist” needs to get convicted to the full extent of the law –
in fact call in the FBI to get some undercover infiltration of this East Palo Alto community.
So much Asian Hate in this “White Supremacist” community –
seems that people like Lathan Johnson are the greatest threat to our Democracy.
Well, you can always tell it’s not a “white supremacist” because news outlets won’t provide a photo or state the race of the suspect. But if he was a “white supremacist” then the story would’ve read: Lathan Johnson, a white male, committed a series of hate crimes…..
Why is it always Trumps fault? That’s the only retort you thigh slappers can come up with.
This is a man filled with hate against other races and carrying it to another level. The sad thing is one, your comment and the other this guy will probably get a minimum sentence, our justice system at work.
gotta be Trumps fault
@BMAR3, I guess you failed to take in the sarcasm, this follows the arrests mentioned in the last paragraph.
Trio Accused of Targeting Asian Women in Muggings Nabbed by San Jose Police
https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/trio-accused-of-targeting-asian-women-in-muggings-nabbed-by-san-jose-police/
Try something from the BB, to add some more context in which progressives can twist anything, anyway they want to fit the narrative.
“9 Black People Who Are Really White Supremacists” (BB news, Aug 24, 2021)
You’d think that it would be impossible for a black person to be a white supremacist,
or at least very difficult. But you’re not Woke enough if you haven’t yet realized that
black people can be some of the most anti-black people around.
Just trust us, this makes sense.
Here are 9 of the most blatantly white supremacist black people today:
1. Larry Elder – This is an obvious one. But this man is trying to defeat California’s pasty-white Governor Newsom, so he’s clearly a secret member of the KKK.
2. Candace Owens – Candace says some stuff that’s so far-right even my uncle on Facebook says it’s too far. Raaaaaaycist!
3. The Black Panther – T’Challa refused to use Wakanda’s resources and technology to help people start Communist revolutions across the globe. He’s basically the face of white supremacy.
4. Martin Luther King, Jr. – MLKJ boldly declared that we shouldn’t judge people by their skin color but by the content of their character. Making him basically QAnon.
5. Frozone – Frozone wears white and shoots ice, both of which are dog-whistles to white supremacist sleeper cells across Metroville. He and Mr. Incredible probably attend Klan meetings together.
6. Denzel Washington – Denzel worked hard and didn’t complain and became successful,
never blaming any struggles he had on the oppressive white man. This makes him a tool of the secret cabal of racists running our society (they meet on Tuesdays at a Toledo Chick-fil-A.)
7. Carl from The Simpsons – Carl gets along with Lenny despite their differences in skin color,
which is something that far-right racists are OK with. OK, so maybe this one is yellow supremacy.
8. The entire cast and crew of Family Matters – Promoting racism by showing a
healthy nuclear family that has assimilated into white culture? Whoops! Did I do that!?
9. Every black person who does not 100% agree with every single thing the left believes –
We’ll finish this thing off with a catch-all in case we missed any black white supremacists.
If you don’t wholeheartedly stand by the far-left agenda of the Democratic Party,
look in the mirror: your black face may actually be the face of white supremacy.