Posts Tagged ‘hate crimes’
Luis Ramirez and Every Mother’s Sons and Daughters : Seeking Justice by All Means Necessary
7:31 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|crime|Immigration|Justice|media justice|pennsylvania|Politics|race|Violence · 6 Comments
8 May 2009
in 1991, in the rapidly changing immigrant community of Corona, Queens, NYC 19 year old son of Dominican immigrants, Manny Mayi Jr. was beaten to death.
Last year, Marcelo Lucero was killed.
At the start of the new year Wilter Sanchez was nearly killed.
In February of this year Jose Sucuzhañay, an Ecuadorian immigrant was beaten to death.
Speaking Spanish can get you beaten.
And most recently, Luis Ramirez was beaten and killed and those accused got away with murder.
I could go through recent and not so recent history and clearly see a pattern and practice of hate that has been growing. A pattern and practice of racism, nativism, fueled by the media and government, eaten up by the mainstream public.
People in Shenandoah celebrated, went out into the streets and rejoiced after an all-white jury found Brandon J. Piekarsky, 17, and Derrick M. Donchak, 19, guilty of lesser charges and acquitted them of criminal homicide and aggravated assault.
And then people have the nerve to ask why are more Latinos not more active in the fight for immigration change?
This is not just about laws, this about lives.
So what do we as a community do?
Obama Says Happy Cinco de Mayo, Gives Props to Mexicans, Pero Doesn’t Say a Thing About Immigration
7:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|mexico · 6 Comments
5 May 2009Cinco De Mayo commemorates Mexican army’s defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It’s not a drinking game, gringos (damn, why I gotta go make everything racial).
President Obama made a statement yesterday about the holiday. In his statement, he speaks bad Spanish, gives props to Mexicans, especially for how they dealt with the whole swine flu thing. Pero me thinks that it was a missed opportunity for President Obama.
Republican Congresswoman: Matthew Shepard Case “a Hoax”
3:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|crime|GLBT|North Carolina|Politics|society · 4 Comments
29 Apr 2009In 1998, Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered for being gay, drawing attention to the problem of hate crimes against LGBT people in this country and becoming a catalyst for much needed hate crime legislation. Since then, the Shepard case has been a cultural reference point both in the good and the bad sense; hate mongers like Fred Phelps have used Shepard as the target of their disgusting campaigns, and the general public has become more aware of hate crimes as a result of this much-publicized crime.
We all know this brutal murder was a hate crime. But one Republican Congresswoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, wants you think otherwise. Check out her speech on the subject in the video above.
Might this be a good example of the reasons why Senator Arlen Specter believes his party has moved too far to the right?
Angry? Give Rep. Foxx a call and tell her so: DC office Phone: (202) 225-2071 NC District office: Toll Free: 1(866) 677-8968 Phone: (828) 265-0240
Via / Politico
Angie Zapata and Social Media
11:33 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime|GLBT|Internet|Justice|social networking|society|Twitter · 2 Comments
10 Apr 2009Angie Zapata was a transgender woman who was brutally murdered in Colorado last year. Next week, her killer goes to trial, and an online campaign by ProgressNow Colorado is encouraging us to remember Angie’s life and death at this difficult time.
Light a Candle for Angie is a Facebook application designed to draw attention to the issue of hate crimes. If you are a Facebook member, why not join the iniative?
If you are a Twitter member, you can follow all of the activities around the online campaign by adding Justice for Angie, or searching #zapata for other online conversations around anti-hate activism in Angie’s name.
It’s refreshing to once again see social media sites being used for something more than just entertainment. These applications’ ability to bring people together also have great potential to harness the power of many to bring much needed attention to serious social issues such as hate crimes, which I hope will eventually bring about policy change.
Via / AngieZapata.com
Arrest Made in Jose Sucuzhañay Hate Crime
7:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT|Immigration|Justice|New York City · 7 Comments
26 Feb 2009
Last night I was watching the local news and saw that an arrest was made in the racist and homophobic murder of Jose Sucuzhañay.
Hakim Scott, 25, was arrested yesterday in connection with the beating death. Police are looking for another suspect, identified as Keith Phoenix, 28, of the Bronx. Both are African-American.
The reasons why I mention the race of the suspects are many. Certainly the race of the suspects will Be held up as proof that it’s not white racism that is to blame for the 40% rise in hate crimes against Latinos. I have no doubt that it will be said that it’s all the people of color killing each other. As if anti-immigrant hate organizations spending money on divide and conquer ads that point the finger at Latino immigrants for unemployment bear no responsibility? As if ICE who just conducted another raid, bears no blame?
I am also concerned with the arrest of one of two suspects being used as an excuse for the NYPD to lay their heavy hands inside of communities who are already constantly harassed. I want to be clear, D.A. Hynes, who failed to prosecute killer cops who shot young Latino men in the back like Anibal Carrasquillo and Frankie Arzuaga, is not going to be the man to bring real justice to Latino communities and these arrests do not equal license to abuse other people of color.
What should justice look like? Something more than arrest and jail time.
Add to this to how now the Brooklyn District Attorney is defending the manhood of the victim by pointing out that Jose was walking close to his brother to keep warm, not because he was gay. Pero what if Jose had been gay? Would it have been ok then?
Speaking Spanish Could be Harmful to your Health
11:20 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|language|race · Comments Off
31 Jan 2009
Marcelo Lucero, Wilter Sanchez, and José Sucuzhañay taught the rest of the world what Latinos in the U.S. have known for a long time, that looking Latino, existing, puts your life at risk, your body at risk. Add to this fear of a Spanish speaking planet, because Spanish language=Latino=immigrant=target.
A 28-year-old San Jose man was arrested on suspicion of committing a hate crime Monday after allegedly attacking another man because he was speaking Spanish, police Officer Jermaine Thomas said Tuesday.
The 53-year-old victim, who is Hispanic, was talking on his cell phone in Spanish in the area of Saratoga and Latimer avenues around 12:20 p.m. when the attack occurred, Thomas said.
The suspect, San Jose resident Scott Pontzious, who is white, allegedly told the victim during the assault that he needed to speak English.
Pontzious then fled but was later arrested nearby. He was booked into Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of battery and committing a hate crime, Thomas said.
Via / KTVU, Citizen Orange
It only took the death of Marcelo Lucero, a pattern of attacks on immigrants and those that look liked immigrants (read Latinos). It only took the action, anger and sadness of a community tired of the same old happening under the selectively watchful eyes of those vowing to protect and serve everyone except people like us.
The U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District today announced the launching of a joint probe of Suffolk County’s handling of hate crimes against Latinos.
The investigation is in response to this complaint filed by the Manhattan-based LatinoJustice in the wake of the hate murder of Marcelo Lucero documenting a climate of hate and neglect towards Latino victims promoted and/or tolerated by Suffolk County officials.
José Sucuzhañay Rally in Brooklyn
9:45 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Justice|New York City · 2 Comments
15 Dec 2008
Yesterday there was a rally for the latest known Latino hate crime victim José Sucuzhañay.
Present at the rally were Latino city politicos including Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez , City Council member Diana Reyna and City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito. Also present was Altagracia Mayi, activist and the mother of another hate crime victim, Manny Mayi.
Joselo Lucero, whose brother Marcelo was killed last month by a group of Long Island teenagers, was also among those who took part in the Bushwick vigil.
It is so important that the families of those touched by hate crimes be unified and be at the front lines of these struggles. It shoes how racist violence has a history (Mayi was killed in 1991) and how all of these crimes are connected, not just by racist hate that is not going away but also by a criminal (in)justice system that refuses to properly investigate and prosecute these crimes and treats them like isolated incidents.
Via / Blabbeando, Boy in Bushwick
Are Latinos Being Targeted?
1:26 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · GLBT|Immigration|New York City · Comments Off
11 Dec 2008
I think it’s a question most Latin@s already know the answer to, but I was very happy to see that the mainstream news is taking the question seriously–and even allowing the voices of the LGBT community into the mix as well.
“In Suffolk County, if you don’t watch where the areas are that you’re going, are they’re whites, and they see that you’re Latino? They’re chasing you,” said Marcus Morales of the Lower East Side.
“Absolutely. I think Latinos are being targeted,” added Sandra Cruz of the Lower East Side.
But while concern is growing in Latino neighborhoods like Jackson Heights in Queens, when you look closer, the anti-Latino wave is not so “black and white.” There is a strong anti-immigrant component to what’s happening in Suffolk County. And when Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel were attacked in Brooklyn, it was because the brothers were walking so close to each other, the attackers went after them because they were gay. It’s something Marcus Morales knows a bit about as a 53-year-old gay Puerto Rican.
“I’m still here. There’s a reason why: ’cause I knew how to walk, and there were just certain areas that you couldn’t be in,” Morales said. “I’m sad to see that for some reason, we’re backtracking. We’re going back in time.”
And the Hate Keeps on Coming : Hate Crime Against Latinos in Brooklyn
9:29 am By Maegan La Mala · crime|GLBT|Immigration|Justice|New York City|race · 10 Comments
9 Dec 2008
It becomes emotionally exhausting having to write about hate crimes against Latinos, having to read and rehash the disgusting details, and being reminded in very tangible ways of how far people will go to hurt someone who could easily be someone I care about. And here we go again.
On early Sunday morning Jose Sucuzhanay from Ecuador and his hermano Romel Sucuzhanay, were walking arm in arm in Bushwick, Brooklyn, just a block away from home, when a carload of men pulled up nearby. A man who got out of the car yelled anti-gay and anti-Latino epithets at the brothers, then broke a bottle over the 31-year-old man’s head.
His brother ran, and at least three other men who were in the car set upon the 31-year-old, beating him with a baseball bat and kicking him. The beating stopped when the brother returned, holding his cellphone, and told the attackers he had just called the police, the official said.
Jose is now on life support at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and it looks like the family has had to make the heartbreaking choice of not letting Jose suffer anymore.
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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