Family Viciously Attacked in San Francisco

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Hosea Matavao is a convicted felon, living on the streets in San Francisco. He has served time in state prison for assault, robbery and twice for drug possession. Matavao’s robbery conviction let to a harsher sentence under the Three Strikes Law, but he is still out on the street, homeless and angry.

hate crimes three strikes law madmikesamerica

On October 19th, at about 1:30 in the afternoon, a mixed race couple was walking along San Francisco’s Market Street, near the farmer’s market with their two children, a three year old and a 20 month old in a stroller. Matavao yelled a racial epithet at the family as they passed. When the woman asked Matavao to repeat what he had yelled, he attacked her, hitting her repeatedly in the face. Her husband was also punched in the face while trying to protect his wife.

The mother tried to escape with her children still in the stroller, but Matavao chased after her, kicking the stroller and causing a piece of it to strike the three year old child in the head. A bystander who tried to intervene was also hit in the face several times by Matavao. Employees of the farmer’s market alerted two security guards from the Art Institute of California, who subdued Hosea Matavao and took him into custody. Matavao has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $500,000 bail. Luckily, the injuries sustained by the mother, father, their three year old child and the bystander were not serious, and were treated at the scene.

From 2009-2010 the number of hate crimes in San Francisco doubled, and are steadily on the rise. Local law enforcement have begun investigating a network of white supremacist groups in the area. Last November, Alex Cauich was assaulted by group of white men while standing in front of the Nitecap Bar on O’Farrell Street in the Tenderloin. Cauich’s cousin, Jose Omar Cauich, jumped in to help and was also attacked. Witnesses on the scene heard the assailants yelling “white power” and “run like you ran across the border” while the incident took place. The men were later identified as Robert Allen, Justin Meskan and Anthony Weston. Weston reached a plea deal with prosecutors, only Meskan and Allen were charged.

Even though prosecutors held that race was clearly an issue in the assault, jurors declined to convict the two defendants of a hate crime—however, the question of whether to include a hate crime charge in their decision was the crux of the jury’s two day deliberation process. “While the jury believed that race was a major factor in the severity and length of the beating of the victims,” said Assistant District Attorney Victor Hwang after discussions with the jury after the verdict, “they couldn’t find beyond reasonable doubt it was the cause of the initial assault.”

When police searched Allen’s apartment, they discovered a significant collection of white supremacist and Nazi paraphernalia.

As the economy continues to struggle, more and more people are jumping on the “Those illegals are taking our jobs” bandwagon. With the overt racism flowing from the Tea Party, and bloggers on Stormfront.org suggesting the Tea Party is something white nationalists should embrace, is it any wonder that hate crimes in one of the most beautiful and diverse cities in America are on the rise? Anthony Weston’s plea with prosecutors revealed a network of white supremacists in San Francisco and Weston specifically named three groups with up to 200 members. Most of these groups were started within the California prison system investigators believe, and may be involved in other illegal activity, like drug trafficking and identity theft.

A gorgeous fall day turned into a nightmare for one family in San Francisco, thanks to Hosea Matavao. If the bigotry, hate, ignorance and violence that seem to be permeating our society is not stopped, how many more families will be attacked? How many more people will let their anger and rage take control of them, and join Stormfront, or W.A.R.? How many angry people will read the pseudo science that comes out of American Renaissance and agree? When so called “liberal” MSNBC refuses to remove known racist Pat Buchanan from their airwaves and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the interactive arm of MLB joins forces with Glenn Beck, I believe a lot more people will join with groups that hate based on skin color or religion or sexual identity. It’s mainstream hate. And it seems to be growing.

MadMikesAmerica thanks to Huffington Post and SPLC for post background.  Have you been a victim of hate like the family in San Francisco?

About Post Author

Erin Nanasi

Erin Nanasi is an avid underwater basket weaver, with a penchant for satire and the odd wombat reference.
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12 years ago

I am sickened, Liz, not by your writing, but the content. That poor family. They will live with that for the rest of their lives, while Matavo thinks his actions were justified.

Yes, hate crimes are on the rise. I saw enough after 9/11 to be disgusted. When an economy goes south, the number of vicious bigots grow. That’s how Hitler took control over Germany, when the country suffered unimaginable poverty.

Now, we’re dealing with an economically crippled society which gives way to the rise of ignorant people committing horrible crimes and justifying it as “protecting America.”

Really, the jury felt the assault on Cauich was not a hate crime? What the hell is wrong with the people?

The fascist American Nazi party identifies itself as “National Socialism. That, alone, shows how ignorant these people are. Socialism and Fascism are political ideologies that are 180 degrees apart.

I am glad you wrote this, Erin, but I wish that there were no need.

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