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Article snippet: PORTLAND, Ore. — The DarSalam Iraqi restaurant, with its steaming plates of falafel and kebab, has for years served as a popular community gathering spot here. The Iraqi family who ran it felt welcome in this eclectic city. But all of that changed one night last spring when a man with a shaved head walked in and took a seat. As other customers chatted, he refused to order, instead staring at photos of the Iraqi countryside on the wall. After about a half-hour, he got up, walked over to the cash register, began cursing about Iraq, and threw a chair at a waiter’s head, sending him dazed to the floor. Portland has been on edge over a sharp increase in hate crimes this year. Swastikas showed up on school walls; a mosque received a threatening letter that read “I will enjoy the sight of the blood of you and your fellow vermin running into the streets.” Two men were killed in an attack by an avowed white supremacist on a commuter train. Determined to take a stand, the authorities came down hard on the restaurant attacker, a 40-year-old California man named Damien Rodriguez. Though similar crimes typically merit misdemeanor charges, lawyers said, prosecutors charged him with felony-level hate crime and assault charges that carry a mandatory prison sentence. That is where people who know Mr. Rodriguez say the case took a wrong turn. Mr. Rodriguez was a decorated Marine sergeant major who was forced to retire after his arrest. He had spent years in combat. Friends and fam... Link to the full article to read more