Hate crime or drug deal gone bad?

A hate-crime indictment against a black teenager accused of beating and racially abusing a Mexican student was dropped by a Supreme Court judge after a request by the Staten Island district attorney. The case was among a rash of alleged bias incidents that increased the police presence in the borough as well as concerns about racial tensions. District Attorney Daniel Donovan said the victim withheld information from investigators that conflicted with an initial determination that he was targeted for the beating and robbery simply because he was Mexican. During the course of the investigation, Christian Vazquez, 18 years old, admitted he had fought with the group of African-American men after he felt they cheated him on a marijuana sale. He omitted that fact in testimony in front of the grand jury, which eventually voted to indict the suspect on hate-crime charges. The attack on Vazquez was the 11th of 12 incidents in the Port Richmond neighborhood that were being investigated as possible bias crimes against Mexican residents. Donovan said eight arrests were made in five incidents. In two cases, the grand jury declined to bring a hate-crimes indictment and in one case the district attorney declined hate-crimes charges pending further investigation. The rash of alleged incidents resulted in a stepped-up NYPD enforcement and appeals from activists and city officials for a calming of racial tensions in Port Richmond.