Three Pa. teens charged in fatal beating of immigrant
PORT CARBON, Pa. - Three white teens were charged Friday in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town. Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, and Colin J. Walsh, 17, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation in the July 12 attack on Luis Ramirez.
A third teen, Derrick M. Donchak, 18, was charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other offenses. All are from Shenandoah, where the attack occurred.
Additional charges are expected in the case that has roiled Shenandoah, a small, economically depressed town where police have reported friction between whites and a growing Hispanic population.
WARNING: Graphic Photo of Luis Ramirez
UPDATE: Hazleton mayor decries murder of illegal immigrant
UPDATE: MALDEF CALLS ON U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL MUKASEY TO INITIATE FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION INTO BRUTAL BEATING DEATH OF MEXICAN IMMIGRANT
UPDATE:
COMMUNITY CANDLELIGHT VIGIL
~In Loving Memory of Luis Ramirez~
Join us for a community candlelight vigil in honor of 25-year old Luis Ramirez, loving
father of three children and fiancée to Crystal Dillman. On July 12, Ramirez was
walking home when a group of juveniles brutally beat him while yelling racial slurs. As
a result, he died of his injuries two days later. (News Article)
Join the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Crystal
Dillman, Arielle and Victor Garcia (eyewitnesses to the crime and friends of Ramirez),
Dr. Agapito Lopez (community activist) and family and friends to celebrate the life of
Luis Ramirez and bring healing and solidarity to the community. We call for true peace
that is only possible when justice is served.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
6:00 PM
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
222 N. Diamond St
Shenandoah, PA 17976
For more information, please contact
Dr. Agapito Lopez at 570-956-9302 or at dragapito@aol.com,
or John Amaya at 202-841-5224 or at jamaya@maldef.org.
What will the Hispanic-American Community do in the face of such brutal hatred. Please email, call write to those in power in Pennsylvania, to make sure these kids are punished to the full extent of the law!
Reply to this
Too bad the Bush administration hadn't caught and deported (or imprisoned) this criminal before he got into an altercation with three citizens and got himself killed.
I don't have anything against hispanics, but I strongly disapprove of the flood of criminal invaders flowing across our southern border. We should be shooting them as they cross, instead of allowing them to get as far north as Pennsylvania to be killed by teenagers.
Reply to this
You have nothing against Hispanics yet you are okay with shooting them as they cross the border? Something is wrong with you, if you are not happy with people crossing the border then blame your own government and American Corporations for creating the problem, in the first place.
"You see, most of Latinos are here because of the great inflation that was caused by American companies in Latin America. Aside from that, many are seeking a life away from the puppet democracies that were funded by the United States; places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Republica Dominicana, and not just Spanish-speaking countries either, but Haiti and Jamaica as well. " The Poverty of Philosophy
Reply to this
That is like saying too bad the girl was wearing a skirt before she got herself raped. Do you consider yourself a Christian? If so, do you really think that is what Jesus would think? Do you know any "hispanics"? We are people too and all people deserve better treatment than Luis got at the hands of these criminal teens!
Reply to this
The only people we can blame is the demonization of Mexican's from Repulicans and media. Visit any white supremacy websites and you will quickly discover that Mexican immigration is the top priority to these savages. They are worried about the hispanic growth rate. This will not stop until latinos support more democratic politicians and stand together.
Reply to this
This is truly unacceptable, we all must step up and do something. Times are changing, This is the new America if we let it happen.
"Silence Something about silence makes me sick" RATM
Reply to this
This has always been the case, it is not a new America. I grew up in the late sixties and was subjected to beatings and intimidation. Obama better come home, stop kissing Europeans and think a bit about his own Palestine and hemisphere. Greed, injustice, hunger and racism are the true enemies and easy to find in his own house.
Reply to this
The article is about the teens who committed a heinous crime, but I don't think that's nearly enough.
It doesn't mention where these young men obtained their racism: their parents and the community at large.
Things like this make me wonder if maybe the "right of free speech" ought not to have some exceptions, such as teaching young people to hate. If it can't be made an exception to free speech, then it should be listed as a form of child abuse - and enforced maximally.
Just look at what one of the kids' defense attorneys said:
“I think any time there’s a fight and any time you have one ethnic group fighting another, there’s going to be racial slurs,” he said. “I’ve seen that since I was a kid on a playground 20 years ago, but they never called it ethnic intimidation until very recently.”
That kind of says it all. It wasn't called ethnic inbtimidation - and it SHOULD HAVE BEEN.
I've lived in Mexico now for 14 years. The people here are mostly wonderful folks, often better in some ways, than the people back home - much more generosity of spirit, just for one thing. I love two countries now.
Why do Americans have such a DEEP need to hate based on color or ethnicity? They don't like Europeans much, either. The real question is: Who DON'T they hate?
Nor is this hatred minor in the U.S. I'd thought it was dropping dramatically since the '60s, but now I'm not so sure. Slime like these may actually deprive our country of the finest potential president we've ever seen - simply because he has some melanin in his skin! I wish we could retract the citizenship of every bigot in America! They deserve it, because the bigots do NOT believe in democracy at all. Nobody who thinks that "some people are more 'equal' than others" has any right to call himself an American.
The REAL inferiors in our society are the bigots. Each and every one of them is an inadequate - and sociopathic - personality.
Put these kids in jail for a LONG time - and put their PARENTS there, too. The kids couldn't have had that hate without coaching from home. It's time parents paid for the despicable things they teach their own children.
They're all slime, bottom-feeders, the worst examples of humanity - ever. They are people whose hate is so deep and nasty that they would, given the chance, actually commit genocide. The worst "BAD" that there is - or ever could be.
Reply to this
All the people involved in this man death should receive the maximum penalty so as to send a message that any hate or terrorist crimes will not be tolerated and are to be taken seriously. Sometimes the people that are supposed to enforce the law choose sides and all too often ends up in light slap on the wrist sentences, I hope this is not the case here with this murder. Its time to stand up to these hate-filled terror thugs and send them a clear message!!!!!!
Reply to this
I am outraged at the idiots who committed this horrible crime and any ignorant person that tries to justify this tragic murder with their own ignorant beliefs. Because of those punks there is now a woman who must live without her fiance and children that must live without their father.
For anyone who calls the victim a criminal for living in this country "illegally" they better learn their history , after all the pilgrims didn't exactly come in "legally".
Also, as for the teens' lawyer saying that they shouldn't be charged with murder because it was simply "a street fight that ended tragically", now thats just a bunch of crap! The victim was unconscious as the perpetrators were still kicking him the head, that sounds like a blatant attack to me.
My heart goes out to the victims family and my pity goes out to anyone who is not able to realize how tragic and wrong this loss is.
Reply to this
Me Da TaNtA rAviiA q CoN gEnTe CoMo EsO 3 aNiiMaLeS pOrKe No MeReCeN q LeS diiGa GeNtE!!! cOmO pUeDe SeR pOsSiiBlE q SeAn TaN cRuElEs!!!? Lo UniiCo Q nOsOtRoS lOs iiMmiiGrAnTeS eMoS eChO eS vEniiR a EsTe PaiiZ y TrAbAjAr Muii DuRo PaRa SaCaR a NuEsTrAs FaMiiLiiAs AdElAnTe!!! ApOcO eSo Es Un PeCaDo???
An AnOtHeR thiiNg ThiiS iiS 4 bAmBi.... HoNeStLy WuT aRe U tAlkiiN u CaLl Us CriiMiiNaL wEn 3 wHiiTe BooiiS kiiLlEd An InNoCeNt HiiSpAniiC mAn 4 nO rEaSoN wUtS sO eVeR... wHoS dA cRiiMiiNaL iiN tHiS cAsE? bEiiNg An iiMmiiGrAnT dOeSnT mEaN wE dEsErVe 2 Be InCaRcAlEtEd An iiT dEfEnEtLy DoEsNt MeAn DaT wErE cRiiMiiNaLs iiT jUsT mEaNs WeVe CoM 2 aMeRiiCa 2 TrY a MaKe PrOgReSs An 2 Be AbLe 2 PrOviiDe OuR fAmiiLiiEs WiTh EvRyThiNg ThEy NeEd!!!!!
Reply to this
The U.S. media, calls such incidents "hate crimes"__ In reality the death of Luis Ramirez, while in the youth of his life, is so much more complex than the simple emotion of hate or passion. It is a tragic point in a continuum of domination and exploitation of Latin American people, both in their own lands and in a forced economic diaspora to the North. For nearly two centuries the U.S. empire has directly intervened in our homelands, often violently. They have annexed lands, murdered peasants, students and workers; they have destroyed economies and native cultures all over the hemisphere. These forces of greed and expansion revered as Manifest Destiny, pointed South after the "Indian" wars of genocide and terror, led by Andrew Jackson and financed by J.P. Morgan with profits earned from the carnage of the Crimean war. It was then and now, that the complicity of white supremacist leaders, called presidents, and their financial associates, i.e banks, oil companies, defense contractors etc., became ever so clear. Our own Latin American landed elite has been in complicity with this imperial ambitions of the North, from the very beginning. Rich, racist and powerful families of Latin America date back sometimes to the days of Spain's encomienda, they have plundered and murdered their own people. They are the third leg of this triangle, responsdible for the death of 300,000 peasants in Colombia, they were the torturers in Brasil, Venezuela and Paraguay in the 1960's; their cohorts were educated in the Georgia based Military Academy of the Americas, were they learned the strategy of terror and torture. It is they who are responsible for the death of thousands in Argentina and Chile. It is they who overthrew governments in Guatemala, Barbados, Chile. El Salvador and Nicaragua. They stole land in Guantanamo, Cuba and Puerto Rico and bombed Guatemala city in the same fashion that Hitler bombed Gurnica. The story is long and barbaric.
Why do we need to understand our own history ? So that we can no longer be called "illegals" and be judged, by what we do not have in our pockets, and by the color of our skin. By denying us our history, and by not taking responsibility for theirs, the oppressor is able to caricature lettuce pickers and gang members. A people without history are easily objectified. Bambi in her own ignorance mentions, "shoot them at the border" These borders were created in our minds, through violence and propaganda. Bush fooled a nation in Iraq, his associates knew well, that if you repeat a lie enough times, such reference will become the truth. The Nazis were masters of this technique. Migrants do not come here to take anything from the "legal" Americans. We have shed our own blood in the oil wars. No one is born hating or yearning for fast food to satisfy hunger, it is all learned behavior. This school of deliberate misinformation and ignorance must end, we owe it to Luis Ramirez and countless others. We are the human race.
Peace
Reply to this