Corona

On the night of March 29, 1991, Manny Mayi, an 19 year-old Dominican college student was chased and beaten to death by upon crossing over to the Italian-American section of Corona, Queens.

Following his murder, the Queen’s District Attorney’s Office [DA] struggled to produce an effective case against the alleged defendants as the Italian-American community became reclusive and shielded by police investigators. A young Italian-American woman admitted to police investigators that she heard one of the defendants confess to the crime. Nevertheless, her family relocated her to Italy one week prior to the start of the trial in 1993. She was never subpoenaed, thus her testimony was never heard.

The trial jury was selected from a pool of residents from Northern Queens and yielded a sole person of color. And while the crime was committed on a populous street during a warm spring evening, the DA’s office and the NYPD produced only two material witnesses. Compounded by the absence of hate crime legislation at the State or Federal levels, the criminal proceedings resulted in the swift acquittal of a lone defendant.

For years, rumors and accusations of police negligence lingered over the verdict. Most recently an investigation by the NYPD Cold Case Squad, —the results of which have not been shared with the family nor, to their knowledge, the Queens DA—have yielded no movement in the case.

It has been 20 years and this family continues to call for justice for the brutal murder of Manny Mayi. Join them to demand justice.

COME OUT TO THIS EVENT AS YOUR PRESENCE IS NEEDED AND SHARE THE INFO WITH OTHERS!

Today, Sunday March 27
1 pm to 4 pm
One Police Plaza (NYPD Headquarters)
Park Row (entrance is near the corner of Chambers and Centre Street)
New York City

This past Saturday, the family of Manny Mayi Jr., activists, and supporters gathered at the corner named after him on 108th Street and 36th Avenue in Corona, Queens. They were marking 19 years since the Queens College honor student, oldest son of Dominican immigrants, had been chased over a dozen blocks and beaten to death by a racist gang who yelled racial epithets.

As if losing your son weren’t enough, Altagracia Mayi, Manny’s mother, who stands at barely five feet tall, has been fighting not just for the name of her son, who was originally defamed by local media who said he was chased from William Moore Park because he was tagging, but for equal justice under the law. William Moore Park in Corona, Queens is known locally, and somewhat offensively, as Spaghetti Park, because it formed what was the center of an Italian immigrant community. That community wasn’t so welcoming to the growing Latino population, especially Dominicans and Mexicans, that began to move into the neighborhood in the late 1980′s. I know that for myself, who partially grew up in the neighborhood, knew that the area famed for it’s renowned Lemon Ice King of Corona, wasn’t a safe place for Latinos or people of color in general.

Translation of Altagracia’s Words : I want to thank you for always remembering, in 19 years, the name of Manny Mayi. Like I have always told you, Manny Mayi was an honors student, a good student of a high quality that few of those people have. I am Latina and I live proud of being Latina, not like those dogs who commit crimes and stay as if nothing has happened. I live proud.

VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Tag Archives: Corona

20 Years of Injustice for Family in NYC Anti-Latino Hate Crime

19 Years Later, We Are Still Being Killed for Being Latino

VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@