Mr. Perez,
Your recent article on an alleged surge in hate crimes since the November 4 election is inaccurate and misleading.

Most of the text has been taken, almost verbatim, from a recent press release issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) public relations chief, Mark Potok. Not only is this lazy journalism, Mr. Perez, it perpetuates a number of half-truths and falsehoods from an organization that has a documented financial interest in exploiting the public's fear.

You make the comment that Mr. Obama's victory "...has ignited a series of hate crimes against blacks and other ethnic minorities, especially Latinos," and yet you don't cite a single incident that links an attack on Hispanics to Obama's election. Where is this "special" connection?

Nor is there any evidence that the number of hate crimes against minorities is significantly greater now than it was before the election. In addition, you imply that all hate crimes against minorities are perpetrated by Whites, which is also untrue. You cite the November 8 murder of Marcelo Lucero as the "most blatant act of racism recently" while completely ignoring the December 7 attack and murder of another Ecuadorian immigrant, Romel Sucuzhanay at the hands of four blacks in Brooklyn.

Apparently, the attack on the Sucuzhanay brothers, while more recent, doesn't fit your preconceived notion that Whites somehow hold a monopoly on hate. Even the mainstream media are hard pressed to identify such a blatant act for what it is. Most outlets are hiding behind the euphemism "bias attack" instead of calling it out for the hate crime that it is. If the brothers had not been mistaken for gays the press would have written it off as just another black on brown attack; an everyday occurrence in the Big Apple.

As for Mr. Potok and the SPLC, his organization is a self-proclaimed "watch dog" group that has no mandate and receives no external review or regulation. An individual or group makes the SPLC's hate list solely at the whim of the group's founder, Morris Dees, a millionaire lawyer who successfully represented the Klan in the 1960s against charges of attacking Freedom Riders in Alabama. In his autobiography, Mr. Dees states that he was only in it for the money. (Dees, Morris. (1991). A season for justice: The life and times of civil rights lawyer Morris Dees. Pp 84-85)

Among those Mr. Dees designates as "hate groups" are writers, publishers, church groups and "radical traditionalist Catholics," groups to which many Latinos, including yourself, may belong. (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/type.jsp?DT=30).

The SPLC is one of the richest non-profit organizations in the country. Currently it sits on an "Endowment Fund" worth more than $200 million dollars and will add another $25 to $30 million tax-free dollars to that pot this year. Considering that the SPLC spent only $7 million in "legal costs" in 2007, such a fund would allow the group to operate for more than twenty years without raising another dime. (Page 14, http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLC_AR07.pdf)

Due to these huge cash reserves, the American Institute of Philanthropy gives the SPLC a rating grade of "F" and the Better Business Bureau no longer accredits them as a charity due to "...a lack of commitment to transparency." (http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=5fe39041-face-4ffb-8551-1ace558f9082)

The SPLC relies on a campaign of fear and misinformation, such as the press release from which you quote so heavily, to frighten donors, many of whom are elderly, into keeping the donations rolling in. Despite the fact that Morris Dees was a multimillionaire the day he opened the SPLC in 1971, he still sees fit to compensate himself to the tune of more than $330,000 dollars a year from the SPLC's coffers. PR Chief Mark Potok, who has no legal background, is compensated with nearly $140,000 a year from the same donation pot. Obviously, both men have a definite financial stake in exaggerating the number of hate groups and incidents in the United States. (Pages 10 and 26, http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLC990_2006.pdf)

You even go so far as to quote Mr. Potok's embarrassing statement about "...unpleasant exchanges in schoolyards." The incident which has drawn Mr. Potok's ire refers to a 9 year old third grader who made threatening comments about Mr. Obama. As any parent can tell you, 9 year olds make immature and childish remarks precisely because they are children and immature. Should we start rounding up grade schoolers for the gulag and nip this in the bud? Mr. Potok, who has no children, must be pretty desperate to pad out his list of "evidence" if this is the best he can do.

In conclusion, Mr. Perez, no one can deny that there is much hate in this country, but sadly there are many people of all races and creeds who twist the facts for their own political and financial ends. Hate mongers such as the SPLC and the other alphabet soup organizations use fear to dupe millions of good hearted, well meaning people, also of all races and creeds, into sending in their hard earned money. Others, and I'm sure you know the type, Mr. Perez, need to examine their own bigotry and prejudices before attacking entire groups, even if those groups happen to be White.

Richard Keefe