Posts Tagged ‘hate crimes’
One of Marcelo Lucero’s Attackers Pleads Guilty
4:11 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| New York| Violence| crime · 1 Comment
5 Nov 2009
While I was writing my reflections on the anniversary of the hate motivated killing of Marcelo Lucero, , one of his attackers plead guilty to a variety of charges. Nicholas Hausch, 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree gang assault, fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.
Hausch’s plea is apparently part of a deal in exchange for information on what happened the night Lucero was brutally attacked. Hausch had no problem yelling slurs at Lucero almost a year ago, but had problems speaking up before a judge.
In a barely audible voice, Hausch answered a prosecutor’s questions about the events that led to the slaying, admitting that he and his six co-defendants set out to search for Latinos to attack.
“Keep your voice up, young man,” the judge said to Hausch twice during the teen’s admissions.
Responding to questions from Assistant District Attorney Meghan O’Donnell, Hausch detailed three attacks he was involved in on Nov. 8, including the Lucero killing.
Before coming across Lucero, Hausch said the group pursued another man. “I got out of the car and I chased him. We were yelling at him,” calling him a derogatory name, he said….
Hausch faces 5 to 25 years in prison on the gang assault charge and will not be sentenced until the prosecution of the other six defendants is completed.
Via / Newsday
New 287(g) is Alot Like Old 287(g) Just Don’t Call it Racial Profiling.
4:53 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Justice| Politics · No Comments
17 Oct 2009
Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it had entered into revised 287(g) pacts with 67 local and state law enforcement agencies. Despite the fact that many organizations, from this little Latino space in the blogmundo to the United Nations, have been critical of the program that empowers police to identify and remove undocumented immigrants, the “new and improved” 287(g) allegedly is “friendlier” (when have you known law enforcement to be friendly) and “race neutral” (is that like post-racial). The new Memorandums of Understanding (MOA’s), which haven’t been made public so they cannot be compared with the old MOA’s, allegedly include more oversight and state that the participating agencies have to focus on “serious” criminals and promise to follow civil rights and constitutional laws (no one checked if the signers had their fingers crossed behind their back).
Read more…
Mexico City : Hate Crimes Laws Won’t Bring Back the Dead Pero It’s More than the U.S. Has
8:11 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT| Justice| Violence| crime| mexico · Comments Off
27 Aug 2009
I have a pretty radical stance towards hate crimes legislation. I’m not the type of person who likes to push legislation as an answer to way communities are brutalized. Laws certainly won’t bring back the dead and a society with hate woven into the fabric of its narrative isn’t going to stop attacking people it sees as “imperfections” in that weave.
That being said, in Mexico City there have been at least 6 murders of gay men that have not been classified as hate crimes. Instead, authorities in the D.F. label the deaths as “crimes of passion”. From vecino Blabbeando:
LGBT advocates have already claimed that homophobia might be at play in the murders of six gay men during the last year, even if authorities have said otherwise. The latest, they say, occurred on August 15th, when 24 year old Victor Galán, who had moved to live in Mexico City a month earlier, was stabbed 12 times and found dead in his apartment. Advocates say that robbery was not a motive in the crime and that they suspect he was killed based on the fact that he was gay. Authorities, on the other hand, say that they have not ruled out a “crime of passion.”
Hate Crime Survivors Victimized Again by Racist Immigration System
6:18 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Philly| race · 5 Comments
26 Aug 2009When an immigrant, or two in this case, don’t fit into the the “good” immigrant narrative because of a criminal (in)justice system based, since its inception, on oppression, does the community turn it’s back? That is the question that the pro-migrant movement needs to ask itself in the face of the case of cousins Denis Calderon & Julio Maldonado who were victims of a hate crime yet find themselves behind bars, awaiting deportation.
Read more…
A Transgender Person is Murdered Every 3 Days in the World…Mostly in Latin America
10:36 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · GLBT| Latin America| Violence| World| crime| society · 1 Comment
29 Jul 2009
Here at VL we have covered lots of stories about violence against transgender people, and unfortunately many of these cases of violence end in death. What I didn’t know was that the rate at which transgender murders occur worldwide was so high; a recent report by non-profit organization Transgender Europe (TGEU) shows that a transgender person is killed every 3 days. And another disturbing fact is that the majority of these murders are happening in Latin America:
The cases have been reported from all six World regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The majority of cases have been reported from Latin America and North America. On these continents the majority of cases have been reported from Brazil (59) and the U.S.A. (16) for 2008 and from Brazil (23), Venezuela (20), and Guatemala (10) for the first six months of 2009. Moreover, the preliminary results show a total of 11 murdered trans people reported for Colombia followed by 5 for Honduras and 4 for Mexico and Venezuela for 2008, and 6 for Mexico and 3 for Argentina, and the Dominican Republic for the first six months of 2009.In total 91 murders of trans people were reported in 11 Latin American countries in 2008, and 73 murders of trans people in 11 Latin American countries in the first six months of 2009. The reported murders of trans people in Latin America account for 75% and 88% of the world wide reported murders of trans people in 2008 and the first six months of
2009 respectively.
The map associated with the study (image above) for 2009 to date shows the highest concentration of murders in South America, particularly in Brazil.
Spain’s Ambiente G reports on another chilling statistic: in Peru, a gay or lesbian person is killed every 5 days.
Via / Ambiente G and TGEU
Interview with Hate Crime Survivor Robert Cantu
11:28 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration| Violence| race · Comments Off
25 Jun 2009Voto Latino conducted an interview with anti-immigrant hate crime survivor, Robert Cantu.
Cases like this one, and countless others are why I worry about the direction immigration reform is headed. Immigration has been colored as brown. So the equation usually breaks down a little something like this : immigrant=latino=mexican. Now math was never my strong point but I’m pretty sure that’s not right. So how do we make sure that the current moves for justice in immigration and against hate crimes are aligned, linked and honest about the ways race and ethnicity are viewed in this country?
6 Months and 10 Days : What Courts Value Latino Lives At
8:22 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Obama| Ohio| Politics| Violence| crime| media justice| pennsylvania| race · 7 Comments
18 Jun 2009This morning in my inbox I received another email telling me, and whoever else was on this advocacy org’s coveted mailing list, that I should be vigilant about the rising tide of hate crimes and yet again the point of reference was the Holocaust Museum shooting.
Do I really need a reminder? Do I need to hear the frenzied 911 call of a mother after seeing her husband and daughter shot and killed? I know that audio is going around some blogs and media sites and I have refused to listen for my own personal sanity as a Latina mother but also as a statement against the exploitation of the pain of Latinas for the sake of “the story”
Would Hate Crimes legislation made a difference? Would it have prevented a Latino young man from having a noose placed around his neck and dragged around a parking lot in Ohio? Maybe if the young man would have died his lie would have been worth more than the paltry sentence his horror was met with.
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – A central Ohio teenager accused of putting a noose around a Hispanic boy’s neck and dragging him in a parking lot has been sentenced to 10 days in jail.
The 18-year-old was sentenced Wednesday in juvenile court in Mount Vernon, a city of 15,000 residents an hour’s drive northeast of Columbus. He dropped his original plea of not guilty and pleaded no contest to ethnic intimidation.
A charge of aggravated menacing was dropped.
Hate Crime Laws May Make Us Feel Good Pero They Won’t Save Our Lives
9:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Immigration| Justice| Politics| Violence| crime| media justice| race · 2 Comments
16 Jun 2009I think I have had to write this over and over many times, every time there is a hate crime against a Latino pero it is worthy of repeating.
Defining what makes a hate crime is a political act. The reason I write this is that I am reading many media reports and blogs that keep referring to the shooting at the Holocaust Museum as a hate crime but not that many referring to the murders of Brisenia Flores and her father as a hate crime.
On a legislative level, states each have their own hate crime statutes that aren’t consistent with each other so what may be a hate crime in one state may not be in another. Often the definition of a hate crime is hinged on the use of an epithet or slur, not the history of the community where it happened. This is why some advocates have been pushing for Federal hate crimes legislation, that would create one standard that would be followed across state lines and these moves make people feel good, offer a sense of protection, except they are only good once there is a victim.
U.S. Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY), Steve Israel (D-NY) and José E. Serrano (D-NY) announced the introduction of the National Hate Crimes Hotline Act of 2009.
“Far too many victims silently bear the burden of the crimes committed against them, which is why we are taking steps to provide a place for them to be heard. A National Hate Crimes Hotline would allow New Yorkers and victims across the country to safely report to the police and find vital assistance. In addition, accurate reporting will improve local responsiveness, increase prevention efforts and help bring an end to these heinous acts,” said Rep. Velázquez.
Latino Gang Suspected in California Hate Crime
10:50 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Los Angeles| crime| race| society · Comments Off
4 Jun 2009
A family in Pasadena, California thought they were moving into the home of their dreams. African-Americans who had no qualms about moving into an all-Latino neighborhood called Duarte, the Davy family they thought both the home and the area had everything they were looking for. That is, until their house was destroyed from top to bottom in an allegedly racially-motivated attack. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Davy never thought about the fact that they would be the only black family on the mostly Latino block — until someone reminded her in a way that still makes her eyes tear and her stomach twist.On May 8, Davy opened the door to her home and was greeted by a barrage of spray-painted racial epithets. The hardwood floors, the mirrors, the televisions, the dressers — the vandals had turned the entire place into a canvas for that six-letter word used for decades to scare and scar African Americans.
Shaken, she immediately left and called police. And aside from one trip back to pick up some clothes, Davy has refused to return to a scene authorities believe was created by members of a local Latino gang.
“As far as hate crimes go, it’s probably one of the worst ones I’ve seen in my career,” said Sgt. Tony Haynes of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Duarte station. “They trashed the furniture and tossed drawers — there was pretty much no room left untouched.”
Chanisse discovered this terrifying scene upon coming home from picking up her daughter from day care. Since then, the Davys have been living in a hotel and are afraid to return to their home.
The LA Times reports that interracial shootings have happened in the past in Duarte, but no one in the community seems to have been prepared for something of this magnitude.
Earlier this week, Latino and Black victims of hate crimes in Pasadena, including Chanisse Davy, came together to demand an end to the violence.
Via / LA Times
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell Asks Attorney General Eric Holder to Pursue Civil Rights Charges Against the Murderers of Luis Ramirez
9:30 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Justice| pennsylvania · Comments Off
30 May 2009
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendel sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder recommending that the Department of Justice pursue civil rights charges against the murderers of Luis Ramirez, Piekarsky and Donchak.
While this is good news, as any movement towards justice is, after reading the letter, I remain concerned with how Ramirez’s death and the actions of those who killed him are framed in isolation. Ramirez’s death is framed as a hate crime, with the governor drawing connections to the Yankel Rosenbaum and Rodney King cases. However where is the mention of the long line of anti-Latino/immigrant hate crimes? Where is the line connecting Ramirez’s death to the anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric that we are seeing now used even against Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor?
The entire letter is after the jump.
Hola!
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