A Turning Point? – 3 Pennsylvania teens charged in immigrant’s death

A Turning Point? – 3 Pennsylvania teens charged in immigrant’s death

Posted on Jul 25, 2008 in Hate Crimes by PMC 10 Comments

Three white teens were charged today in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town.

Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, and Colin J. Walsh, 17, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation in the July 12 attack on Luis Ramirez.

A third teen, Derrick M. Donchak, 18, was charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other offenses. All are from Shenandoah, where the attack occurred.

Ramirez, 25, was beaten to death after an argument with a group of youths that police said included high school football players. Authorities could not immediately say if any of the suspects were members of the team, but they confirmed that all three used ethnic slurs during the fight.

“As a result of this crime, a young man has lost his life. Many other lives have been devastated, and the borough of Shenandoah has been filled with tensions between many ethnic groups,” Schuylkill County District Attorney James Goodman said.

“Now that the criminal charges have been filed, we must let this case be handled in the criminal justice system,” he said.

Police said as many as six teens were involved in the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. He died July 14 of head injuries.

Crystal Dillman, the victim’s 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up in Shenandoah, has said Ramirez was often called derogatory names, including “dirty Mexican,” and told to return to his homeland.

“I plan on moving out of this town as fast as I can. Not because I’m scared. I just don’t want to see my children have to deal with what their father dealt with,” Dillman said.

Piekarsky and Walsh were being held without bail, while Donchak was held on $75,000 bail.

Lawyers for Piekarsky and Walsh said their clients were not guilty and that there was no evidence to support the homicide charges. They also said they would try to have the case removed to juvenile court.

It is important for the American public to understand that the current anti-immigrant sentiment spreading across the country doesn?t simply cause discomfort to those who ?look illegal,? but can have serious and tragic consequences

Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania?s coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

Some local officials have attempted to explain the incident as a “street fight that went wrong,” suggesting the victim himself might have provoked the attack. But initial reports don?t support that suggestion:

One important characteristic of hate crimes is that the crime is often intended to send a message to the rest of the community. In this case, the message was that the presence of Mexicans in Shenandoah was not welcome.

Retired Philadelphia police Officer Eileen Burke, who lives on the street where the fight occurred, told The Associated Press she heard a youth scream at one of Ramirez?s friends after the beating to tell her Mexican friends to get out of Shenandoah, “or you?re going to be laying next to him.

Tragedies such as these remind us of a recent statement made by Stacy Burdett of the Anti-Defamation League:

[W]hen people all over the country are trained to think of immigrants as ?invading? our way of life, trying to rip apart our civilization, and undermine our values; when we?re trained to think of them as a little bit less than, less deserving of rights, less human, animal-like, almost . . . good people will be inculcated to hate. And the suggestion is not that implicit, that maybe communities should take matters into their own hands

Despite the witness statements, Borough Manager Joseph Palubinsky said he doesn’t believe Ramirez’s ethnicity was what prompted the fight: “I have reason to know the kids who were involved, the families who were involved, and I’ve never known them to harbor this type of feeling.”

Yeah, Right! Not racially motivated? Give me a frigging break!

Certainly the defense lawyers want this tried in juvenile court where these fucktards would be sentenced until they turn 21 and turned loose. This cannot be allowed to happen.

Tags: Ethnicity, Hate Crimes, Pennsylvania, racism