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Bay Area Community Members to Hold Vigil and Release Statement about Murders in Maryland and Puerto Rico

20 Nov 2009

PRESS RELEASE

TIME: Sunday, November 22, 3:30pm
LOCATION: Mac Arthur and Grand Ave. at Lake Merritt

CONTACT: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Liz Latty
PHONE: (510) 282-5223
EMAIL: morethanavigil@gmail.com

BAY AREA COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO HOLD VIGIL FOR QUEER/TRANS TEENS MURDERED IN MARYLAND AND PUERTO RICO

OAKLAND, CA – Outraged at the murders of two queer and trans teenagers last week, Bay Area queers and allies will gather at Lake Merritt this Sunday for a candlelight vigil and open mic to mourn and brainstorm ways to keep their community safer from violence.

Last Friday, 19-year-old Jorge Steven López-Mercado got into a car with Juan Martinez-Matos, 26, who later said he had been “searching for a prostitute.” Martinez-Matos murdered, beheaded and dismembered López-Mercado after, he said, he discovered that López-Mercado had male genitalia and was wearing feminine clothing. Martinez-Matos then set fire to Lopez-Mercado’s remains and left them on the side of a road. Martinez -Matos is now in custody and has confessed to the murder. His bail is set at $4 million.

The same week, in Baltimore, Maryland, queer fifteen-year-old Jason Mattison, Jr., was raped and stabbed to death in his aunt’s home by an adult male, a family friend with whom, according to a Baltimore police spokesperson, Mattison allegedly had a “forced sexual relationship.”

Queer activists say they worry that López-Mercado’s murderer will successfully invoke the defense of “gay or trans-panic” to justify the brutal killing. “The fact that Martinez -Matos is saying that López-Mercado was ‘wearing women’s clothing’ indicates that he might try to say he was ‘fooled’ and therefore ‘forced’ to kill López-Mercado for their gender identity,” Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, one of the organizers of the Oakland vigil said.

“This is completely inexcusable,” Liz Latty, another organizer of the rally this Sunday, said. “It’s blaming the victim. We unequivocally denounce the way that the lives of queer and transgendered people, sex workers, people of color, women and low-income people are devalued and seen as disposable. We especially denounce the ways in which femme-presenting sex workers of color are incredibly targetted for violence.”

Referring to López-Mercado’s murder, police investigator Ángel Rodríguez Colón told Univisión, “These types of people, when they enter this lifestyle and go out into the streets, know that this could happen.”

“We are outraged at the murders of López-Mercado and Mattison,” Oakland vigil organizer Latty said. “We, queer and transgendered people in Oakland, are mourning these senseless deaths. Yet we are also a resilient community. We wish to stand in solidarity with those in Puerto Rico and Baltimore who are surviving despite this invisibility and injustice.”

Bay Area organizers of the vigil have been in contact with friends of López-Mercado and are hoping to coordinate memorial events and future actions with the Puerto Rican and Baltimore queer communities.

Harry Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the FBI in Puetro Rico, said that the agency will monitor the investigation since federal statutes regarding hate crimes are implicated. Puerto Rican lawmaker, Charlie Hernandez, who authored the Hate Crimes Act of 2002, has been asking officials to consider charging Matos under that law. It would be the first time in Puerto Rico that a murder would be classified as a hate crime. According to the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, López-Mercado is the tenth murder victim of a hate crime in Puerto Rico in the last seven years.

But Oakland vigil organizers say they want a different kind of justice that doesn’t rely on increased policing or punishment. They say that the prison system has not made life safer for victims of violence, especially those who are queer and transgendered people of color. Organizers say that violence against queer youth of color is only exacerbated by increased police enforcement, which disproportionally targets and locks up low-income people, people of color, sex workers, and gender non-conforming people.

“Hate crimes legislation and more police patrols would not make our communities safer. It would not have prevented the murders, and no punishment will bring these two men back,” organizer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha said. “Systemic homophobia and transphobia killed López-Mercado and Mattison, who like other queer or gender non-comforming youth of color, faced barriers like street harassment and discrimination in every facet of life. What could’ve actually saved the two young men are things like free or affordable public transportation, an end to housing and employment discrimination against people of color, queer and trans folks, and the decriminalization of sex work.”

“We don’t know how Lopez-Mercado identified, gender-wise, right now,” added Piepzna-Samarasinha. ” What we do know is that transphobia is a huge part of why they were murdered. As we continue to receive information from Lopez-Mercado’s friends and family members about how Lopez-Mercado saw their gender, we will change their pronouns to the ones they preferred. We want to work to create a world where all people are free to live in safety with any gender expression they desire.”

Vigils mourning López-Mercado and Mattison will also take place this Sunday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Amherst, MA, Tara Haute, Abilene, TX, Atlanta, and Durham.

Russell Athletic rehires fired union organizers

4:54 pm By la Macha · honduras| youth · No Comments

18 Nov 2009

This is such an important victory, one that I have been a part of. This organizing has been going on for years and years, it’s satisfying as a former organizer to see it come to something important, and it’s tremendous as a human being to know that fellow human beings have the dignity of a safe job and union protection.

From the New York Times:

The often raucous student movement announced on Tuesday that it had achieved its biggest victory by far. Its pressure tactics persuaded one of the nation’s leading sportswear companies, Russell Athletic, to agree to rehire 1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when Russell closed their factory soon after the workers had unionized.

From the time Russell shut the factory last January, the anti-sweatshop coalition orchestrated a nationwide campaign against the company. Most important, the coalition, United Students Against Sweatshops, persuaded the administrations of Boston College, Columbia, Harvard, New York University, Stanford, Michigan, North Carolina and 89 other colleges and universities to sever or suspend their licensing agreements with Russell. The agreements — some yielding more than $1 million in sales — allowed Russell to put university logos on T-shirts, sweatshirts and fleeces.

Going beyond their campuses, student activists picketed the N.B.A. finals in Orlando and Los Angeles this year to protest the league’s licensing agreement with Russell. They distributed fliers inside Sports Authority sporting goods stores and sent Twitter messages to customers of Dick’s Sporting Goods to urge them to boycott Russell products.

The students even sent activists to knock on Warren Buffett’s door in Omaha because his company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns Fruit of the Loom, Russell’s parent company.

“It’s a very important breakthrough,” said Mel Tenen, who oversees licensing agreements for the University of Miami, the first school to sever ties with Russell. “It’s not often that a major licensee will take such a necessary and drastic step to correct the injustices that affected its workers. This paves the way for us to seriously consider reopening our agreement with Russell.”

Update : Arrest Made in Murder of 19 Year Old Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado

9:54 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT| Puerto Rico| Violence| crime| youth · 5 Comments

17 Nov 2009

georgestevenmercado Just read this off of Pam’s House Blend and then read the original article off of Primera Hora.

A man was arrested in the early morning hours in Cayay, suspected in the death of 19 year old Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado…an apparent homophobic hate crime…Sources say that the 28 year old man may have offered Lopez Mercado money for sex.

This case needs to be closely monitored for what may be the double victimization of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. There may be an attempt to paint this as a crime of passion, “gay panic”, and/or “prostitution gone bad” instead of the horrific act of hateful violence it was.

Organizations Asking Department of Justice to Intervene in Murder Case of Jorge Steven López Mercado

6:41 am By Maegan La Mala · GLBT| Puerto Rico| Violence| youth · No Comments

17 Nov 2009

georgestevenmercado Yesterday la Macha wrote about the horrific murder of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado in Puerto Rico.

Some organizations are calling for the intervention of the United States Department of Justice, especially in light of comments that the local police investigator on the case made in the media:

The local police investigator assigned to the case said to Univisión about the victim: “Someone like that, who does those kind of things, and goes out in public, knows full well that this might happen to him.”…Puerto Rico’s Civil Rights Commission and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a local activist organization, have asked the Puerto Rico Police Department to take disciplinary action against Rodriguez. The PRPD has removed the investigator from the case, but local activists plan to protest outside the territorial capital in San Juan on Thursday. They also plan to hold a vigil later this week.

The Puerto Rican government added sexual orientation to its hate crimes laws in 2002, but Serrano complained local police have not used it to prosecute those accused of anti-gay violence. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced it will take jurisdiction over the case if local investigators conclude López’s killer or killers murdered him because of his sexual orientation.

Gay Rican Teen found brutally murdered

2:45 pm By la Macha · Puerto Rico| Violence| crime| youth · 6 Comments

16 Nov 2009

This news is just so sad and horrific and enraging.

ricanfoundmurdered

“On November 14 the body of a gay 19 year old was found a few miles away from the town in which he was residing in called Caguas. He was a very well known person in the gay community of Puerto Rico, and very loved. He was found on the site of an isolated road in the city of Cayey, he was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered, both arms, both legs, and the torso. This has caused a huge reaction from the gay community here, but its a difficult situation. Never in the history of Puerto Rico has a murder been classified as a hate crime. Even though we have to follow federal mandates and laws, many of the laws in which are passed in the USA such as Obama’s new bill, do not always directly get practiced in Puerto Rico. The police agent that is handling this case said on a public televised statement that ‘people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen’. As If the boy murdered Jorge Steven Lopez was asking to get killed…”

May peace be with Jorge Steven Lopez and VL sends so much love and support to his family and loved ones during this horrible time. VL will keep you updated on any actions that happen.

Story found via facebook

Monday Morning Movie : Justicia for Sarah Kruzan

6:44 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| Violence| Women| youth · No Comments

16 Nov 2009

Last Monday we wrote about how the Supreme Court was hearing two cases examining the practice of sentencing juvenile offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the video part of that post the way this type of sentencing impacts young people of color was looked at. However, in hindsight, the post presented the issue as primarily a male one, failing to look at how women of color are unjustly treated especially with the added layer of sexual violence playing a role with their introduction into the criminal justice system.

I came across part of the life of Sarah Kruzan via a few of my friends on Facebook. Here we have an example how the sexual violence women of color experience criminalizes them, the “victim” if you will, even though I hate that terminology. Sarah was a child, just a year younger than my older daughter, when she was groomed for prostitution by a predatory man. Now I’m not saying that the adult male that pimped her deserved to be killed, but I am saying that Sarah certainly doesn’t deserve life without parole.

A little lunch time fun

12:10 pm By la Macha · youth · No Comments

12 Nov 2009

Because the news has been so depressing, and it is Sesame Street’s big anniversary after all!

For you, Dear VLatin@s–a waiter who knows what effortless resistance looks like.

Supreme Court Hearing Two Cases on Juvenile (In)justice

12:36 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| Linking Latinos| Politics| crime| youth · No Comments

9 Nov 2009

Today the Supreme Court is hearing two cases that could hopefully change how the (in)justice system sentences juveniles. The cases specifically deal with sentencing youth to life without parole and if that is unconstitutional. The cases being used are that of Terrance Jamar Graham and Joe Sullivan, who were 16 and 13, respectively, when they committed their crimes. Not surprisingly, considering how in all phases of the criminal (in)justice system people of color are profiled and targeted, the Supreme Court’s ruling could impact the case of Latino Efrén Paredes, Jr., who at age 15 and wrongly convicted in 1989 for a murder and armed robbery he did not commit; a crime to which others have admitted guilt.

This week’s News With Nezua discusses what the Supreme Court is up to and what’s at stake.

Where is the outcry over this type of violence?

2:13 pm By la Macha · Education| Violence| youth · 1 Comment

16 Oct 2009

We all remember the horrific video of the school kids in Chicago literally beating a fellow student to death. It was played over and over for us on national television and talk shows cashed in the main question: How can this be happening in our schools?

Or, more specifically, how can this be happening in *those* schools. Because we all know that there are certain kids who have to put up with this violent shit every single day of their lives, and there are certain kids that simply don’t.

But my question was never brought up, much less answered. Why do we assume that the kids that are brutalizing other human beings in the most horrific ways haven’t learned that behaviors from others? I.e., adults?

From Truth Out comes a video that is almost as horrible as the beating video. A teen age boy with a learning disability was walking down a hall way when the school cop noticed that the boy’s shirt wasn’t tucked in.

Within seconds, the police officer pushed him into the lockers, repeatedly punched him and then slammed him to the ground and pushed his face to the floor. The officer then applied a face down, take-down hold to the child, a maneuver that has resulted in over 20 deaths nationwide and is banned in eight states.

Now, many activists and bloggers have rightfully noted that just because there’s been an overtly racist reaction to the beating death of the teenager, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t something going horribly wrong in youth culture today. I agree with those people. Kids don’t just beat others to death without having gotten the idea somewhere that reactions like that are ok.

I would argue that the police man’s reaction to a boy walking down the hallway with his shirt untucked is one of the reasons why so many youths today react the way that they do to perceived insults. How many children are treated in similar ways by adults–whether it be the police, teachers, fathers or store managers?

And why do we think that our kids aren’t noticing that “power” comes in the form of violence?

I know many people will try to say that kids have a choice to make the bad choices that they do, and it’s not society’s fault and when oh when are we ever going to stop turning our kids into pansy Sesame Street “love everybody” queers?

I have to wonder, however, how many of those people who would say something like that have spent time mentoring youth? Grown ups want youth to take responsibility for their choices–but how many times have grown ups taken responsibility for their choices? The choices we are making right now are causing children to beat other children to death, leaving the most vulnerable kids open to violent attack by adults, and taking away opportunities from youths before they even realize they had the opportunity to begin with.

And yet, even though it is OUR choices that are harming kids, we are blaming everything on others. Seems kids are learning more than what we give them credit for.

Don’t Worry 2nd Amendment Supporters, Kids Will Probably Still Have Guns to Shoot Themselves With

2:38 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice| Politics| children| society| youth · Comments Off

21 Jul 2009

To all you worried guys in the video above, fear not. Gun control is, as of today, still dead in this country. Just look at this:

A five-year-old boy died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in Hamilton, Ohio, the Journal News newspaper reported online.

The death was from an “accidental, self-inflicted gunshot”, Debbie Lacey, the coroner’s investigator, was quoted as saying late Monday.

The boy, Zachariah Nesbitt, shot himself Saturday night at his home with a 9mm Glock handgun. The bullet went through his lung, Lacey said.

The boy died later Saturday night.

Police were investigating. In the call to emergency services, a man believed to be Zachariah’s father, David Nesbitt, was quoted as saying: “Oh, my God, no. He got my (expletive) gun out of the closet.”

Fear not, arms bearers! This “activist judge” has vowed to simply interpret the law as it is written (video after the jump). So relax, you still might have to put a padlock on your gun cabinet so Junior doesn’t get in there.

VivirLatino