A Latino Rodney King?

In my last post, I wrote about how many conservatives used the H1N1 flu outbreak to launch xenophobic attacks on Hispanics. But if the right wing's reaction to the swine-flu outbreak was a depressing example of the disgust that many Americans hold for Latinos, what are we to make of the news out of Pennsylvania?

Just over a week ago, a jury in that state acquitted two teenagers of beating a man to death in a street brawl. The case apparently had too many contradictory versions of the truth, with multiple witnesses unable to clarify who did what to whom and why. The bottom line is that the teens were convicted of lesser charges and will more or less go on with their lives.

What has caught the eye of Hispanics and people interested in civil rights is that the town where the crime took place, Shenandoah, has a history of racial tension. The victim, Luis Ramirez, was a Mexican immigrant. The teens, as well as the other kids who earlier pled guilty to lesser charges, were white. They jury was all white.

It is impossible to escape the perception, therefore, that a mob of angry whites can beat a Latino to death right in the street without fear of being punished. Of course, those of us who weren't at the trial (like me) can't definitively say that this is a miscarriage of justice. But at the risk of getting all knee-jerky, I have to say that it appears highly suspicious.

Lawyers for the teens admitted that the kids were drunk and got into a fight with Ramirez, who was apparently walking down the street, minding his own business. Prosecutors said that the teens flung racial epithets at Ramirez, then followed up with kicks and punches.

The result was that Ramirez ended up with his brain leaking out of his head, and he died two days later. For no one to be seriously punished over such a crime can only mean one of two things:

1. A Latino man living in an economically depressed small town, where racial issues have flared in the past, inexplicably provoked a group of drunken white males to fight him. They had no choice but to defend themselves by kicking him in the head repeatedly. Or

2. It's ok to bludgeon an immigrant to death.

The verdict would actually make more sense if the teens had been acquitted of all charges. In that case, the implication is that the boys had nothing to do with the fight or Ramirez's death. Instead, by convicting them of a lesser charge (simple assault), the jury basically said, "Yeah, you walloped the guy, and he died, but we don't think you should do time. It's not like he was anybody important."

The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund is pressuring the Department of Justice to file federal charges against the teens. This, as you may recall, was the route that civil-rights groups took after the cops were acquitted in the Rodney King case.

Regardless of how it turns out this time, there is one big difference between the cases. Rodney King is still alive, and Luis Ramirez is not.

Comments

[dRwOOD]

This story has been non-existent...... even here in PA. And that's exactly how THEY want to keep it.

As someone else ponted out - the headlines should read;

Drunk gang kills man = NOT guilty, American justice??

[Vapor]

Who's they? Are they the same people who have NEVER reported a hate crime against white people?

[dRwOOD]

I guess THEY includes YOU & anyone else that implies that murder is acceptable - against ANY race.....

you did notice the I didn't bring up race, right??

[bluedoctor]

I wouldn't say non-existent. Its been reported on as if its just another murder investigation and trial. Sure the area isn't the most diverse or culturally sophisticated or educated. There are many good people in the area and while there are racial tensions, they are aren't as bad as some would have you believe.

It was a brutal crime. But I think it opened the eyes of many in the area to just how awful racial and ethnic resentment can be.

[cwestx]

While appearing to be impartial, you purposely leave out specific details.
The girl was alone when the youths saw her late at night and one of the kids said: You shouldn't be out so late. It seems to me that this was a statement of concern, not racial.
The man then came out of the BUSHES to confront the kids. He was the one who started the argument with the kids, according to the transcripts. So, he wasn't "walking down the street" minding his own business.
He called his buddies BEFORE the first fight. He chased after the kids AFTER his backup showed up.
After the first fight, one of the kids said, "Ok, it's over" and they started to leave.
And, unlike what the comment made by "dizzypdx", the man wasn't walking the girl home to protect her from harrassment; she admitted he was having sex with her since she was 14 (which has nothing to do with the trial, but a corrction to his statement).
Since BOTH sides hurled racial comments and since the prosecutor could not prove who threw the first punch in the second confrontration, BUT both sides agreed that Ramirez and his buds did chase after the kids, I cannot understand, like you, why they were convicted of anything...except possibly underage intoxication.
If you write a blog on a major newspost, get your facts correct; don't "appear" to be impartial and actually make it one-sided.

[winningticket]

It's you that is really biased as you masquearde yourself to be impartial.

[ladydragon]

cwestx
it figures somebody from texas justifying a gang of white men stomping a hispanic man to death, I guess he had it coming is going to be the next thing you say. You say the prosecutor could't prove who threw the first punch, but he sure as hell can prove that a man was stomped and kicked to death and he can damn well prove that he didn't kick himself to death. Texas you can say what you want to say, the jury was all white and a Mexican Immigrant Man is dead, but you infer that it was all the victim's fault?

[dadumdee]

Where are all the people who said if the Jena Six were White....blah, blah, blah?

[FloresdelaHoz]

Murdoch and Limbaugh have this young man's blood on their hands. They have created an environment were 65% of all "reported" hate crimes are against Hispanics. The actual number is higher. Where is the media on this or better yet who controls the media? Where is law enforcement?

Pennsylvania is the Oklahoma of the Northeast. poor, provincial and simple. Obama's Justice department will lose credibility with the Hispanic American voters if they fail to act. We gave Obama the White House and we can take it away. As a Republican who voted for Obama, so far all I have seen is bailout of the bondholder and shareholders of the large financial institutions.

As to the criminals who murdered this young man, payback is a bitch. Hispanic American political and economic power increases every year. Within 10 years, 20% of all votes cast in the US will be by Hispanic Americans. That means that all involved in this crime will not be forgotten. Just think what the Jews did to the Nazis after war. They hunted them down throughout the world. So will we with these murderers.

Every day the LatAm Left becomes stronger (Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador). There is a good chance that Mexico will go Leftist in 2012. Chinese and Russian nuclear naval visits to LatAm are going to become more common. Do we really want the LatAm Giant to wake up and hate us as much as the Islamic world, China and Russia.

[dav ram58]

If the victim had been an African American or someone of the Jewish faith this miscarriage of justice would be the talk of the nation. This Hispanic man gets his skull crushed in and it's "oh well, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

[runswithscissors]

Since they weren't cops (or even adults for that matter), I'd say that it was more like the Reginald Denny attacks. Of those 6 attackers, 5 walked, while one got mayhem and misdemeanor assault. However, if everything went down the way you described it, then the teens should have been convicted of murder and sentenced accordingly.

Neither case can be realistically compared to the Rodney King beating. The only reason the King case was noticed at all was that it was caught on video. Beatings of this nature were practically SOP at the time. That case was more about the systematic abuse of citizens by the police than about that single beating. The acquittal was akin to public acceptence of police brutality.

[creepsinc]

I'm certainly no cop apologist, but Rodney King was hardly "walking down the street, minding his own business".

I don't get the comparison at all.

[KateinAZ]

I don't think this is the case to make your argument that we are all racists. I really don't appreciate the fact that you left out the fact that the man was with a 15 year old girl. Keep looking I am sure there are much better examples that you can find.

[IsobelDeBrujah]

Who cares that he was with a 15 year old girl. Walking with a girl is not a crime. Even if it were a crime, a group of thugs aren't the people to address that crime. They shouted racial slurs and then kicked him to death. I don't care who he was walking with at the time.

[zombie fairy]

So you're saying it's OK to beat an immigrant to death if he's with a 15 year old girl? We know nothing about the girl - she may be an immigrant, too. That doesn't change the fact that a group of white kids beat an unarmed man to death.

[dizzypdx]

That girl was a relative he was walking home so she wouldn't get harassed.

[nee]

Not true the 14 year old girl was his girlfriend.

[MARTYB]

I do not condone what happened to this man at all, but this blog is guilty of sins of omission big time!
1 He was 25 out after midnight with a 15 year old local girl
2 Those thugs were not police, so no RK analogy
3 He was an "illegal alien" he/they are not immigrants
The writer does himself and us a disservice by not writing all the facts that are readily available from the local papers as they have "so far" been ascertained.

[IsobelDeBrujah]

So what? Which of the "offenses" you listed makes the outcome, the death of this man, OK?

Is it his age or his companion? Do those things make it OK for a group of teens to beat him to death?

Is it the fact that he was illegal? Does that make it OK?

The RK analogy stands. He was attacked and the people who did it got away with it.

There is no excuse for this verdict. Stop trying to make them.

[creepsinc]

There is no excuse for the verdict, I agree. I just have a problem with comparing an innocent, presumably law-abiding (besides immigration law) murder victim with Rodney King.

[blkknight]

Everything that you posted is irrelevant. None of those things condone beating someone to death.

"He was an "illegal alien" he/they are not immigrants"

Try looking up the definition of the word "immigrant" before you TRY to prove your point.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/immigrant

[ladydragon]

MartyB
let me get this straight. You say because the man was 25 years old, an illegal alien, and that he was walking with a 15 year old girl, meant that he should be stomped and kicked to death?

[hjo4]

I'm not condoning this incident but this reporter's version is a heck of lot different than all other accounts of this story last week by the MSM. Mr. Ramierz wasn't a "Mexican Immigrant" he was a 25yr old adult male illegal alien.He walked away called his friends for assistance and RETURNED to engage a gang of drunken unruly teens. He didn't deserve to die, but had he decided NOT to return and fight with teenagers perhaps he would be alive today. Yes racial epitaphs were exchanged but it seems an adult man would have enough sense to not to challenge teenagers, especially with him knowing his circumstances.

[Daniel Cubias - Huffpost Blogger]

I knew that if I left out the fact that he was an illegal immigrant, someone would kindly point it out for me. The subtext, of course, is “And that’s how we justify a guy getting beaten to death in the streets of America.”

[hjo4]

I'm not justifying anything but it is a complete lie to say that Mr.Ramirez was a Mexican immigrant , he chose to by pass the legal and lawful way of immigrating into America as most do who chose to come here. As they say "Let's keep it Real" don't pretty things us for sympathy.

[randyjet]

Actually the FACT is that he CHOSE to violate US laws and spit on them by thinking that HE is ABOVE the law. I don't think that those thugs who beat him were any better either. They did NOT get off. They got what they were guilty of which is engaging in a fight WITHOUT weapons which happens all the time in this country. Especially with young boys who are drunk. That he died was NOT their intent and that is why they got the verdict that was given.

The FACT that Ramierez RETURNED to fight makes HIM partly guilty as well. The Feds will have a hard time convincing a jury that their intent was to kill him or violate his civil rights since he decided to take them up on their challenge. If you accept the fight, you get what comes with it.

[overcat]

The man's immigration status is irrelevant to your point. Your post suggests he was beaten to death because he's hispanic. Legal or illegal immigrant status is irrelevant to a fatal beating. Given that, why did you make reference to immigration status at all, not to mention doing so in a misleading fashion by omitting the "illegal" part? If your intent was to bait for irrational comments, bravo, good job. If it was your intent to slip in the "there's no such thing as an illegal person" agenda, you've exposed yourself.

Immigration status and race are separate issues.

[whitemerlot]

Actually there is another big (HUGE) difference between the Rodney King case and the Ramirez case- the Rodney King case was video-taped, and everybody could plainly see uniformed police officers acting like criminals. There apparently is no such direct evidence in the Ramirez case, so any other conclusions that the author draws are no more valid than those of anybody else. Ramirez is not a Latino Rodney King, that much is evident.

[jcwtts1]

The thing about Rodney King, other than the video of the incident, is that it was done under the color of authority. Cops doing it is different than a mob or a gang which is what this was. This was a lynching and that is the language the prosecutor should have used, or at least tested out. Don't worry, the federal seat is Philadelphia I believe. The justice department case will have at least 6 jurors of color maybe more.

J

[jcwtts1]

If a gang of young adults, which is how they would describe them if they were black or Hispanic, killed a white man walking with his girlfriend what do you think would happen?

J

[dRwOOD]

Thanks for your SANE post, I can't believe some of these other posts - it's like a bunch of Repubs were sent here to spin this story

[Vapor]

Who knows? What I do know is that it wouldn't make it any further than the local news.

[Sinick]

Oh man! Get my dander up will you! I can only say that I loathe today's brand of American Justice. Whoever has the most money generally prevails. I'd like to escape, but I am an economic slave.

[dan-o]

I don't think these were rich kids. If you read the article it said "economically depressed area". That doesn't say rich kids to me.

[Nommo]

I hate to say this, Daniel, but if it walks like a duck....