Saturday Night Live used to do a sketch about "those wild and crazy guys" who simply did not understand American ideas of "cool" and gender etiquette and consistently embarrassed themselves around attractive American women. The butts of the SNL joke were vaguely eastern European, but it addresses a common stereotype of boorish foreigners, particularly poorly educated working class ones, who think American women are "easy" (probably because of Hollywood). Its not always a stereotype, I've seen it myself, not just about MittelEuropans, but also Middle Easterners, and yes, Latin Americans. In short, you get poorly educated and unworldly people from traditional and misogynist societies and when they don't realize that you have to master certain social skills in the West to get laid, they sometimes get angry when they can't and they don't.

It rarely leads to violence, usually catcalls and whistles, rude remarks and a little Italian grabassing and groping are all that results, but I can imagine a social or political environment where it could turn ugly, especially when the adolescent gang dynamic takes over. I lived in Puerto Rico for a year, I know why an attractive woman rarely goes out on the street without a male escort, especially if she's una turista Americana.

Of course, this is no excuse for this sort of behavior, as even the more refined members of those societies will agree. And criminal behavior is totally unacceptable, and should be severely punished. In their own countries, these guys would be punished too. And of course, I'm sure you know perfectly well not all sexually assaulted American girls are the victims of foreigners. I was a sailor who had a chance to see my shipmates acting like animals in redlight districts all over Asia. Nice local girls stayed away from the waterfront in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Naha and Olongapo, too; and even the bar whores knew better than to walk the streets alone.

We're talking about restless adolescent males, emboldened by pack behavior, perhaps embittered by social or political oppression or just psychologically crushed by being unemployed strangers in a strange land, eager to take it out on somebody. Are we going to use their behavior as an excuse to affect our immigration and refugee policy, a policy which mostly deals with families fleeing oppression, war, tyranny and grinding poverty? Its not the refugees (many of them educated, middle class and city folk) we have to worry about, its the ones we invite in as cheap manual labor.

And it ain't just Arabs, Rob. That's just who's on our shit list these days. Remember, just a few months ago it was Mexican rapists we were getting all worked up over.