Mexican immigrant dies after fight in Pennsylvania town

[Baltimatt]

Authorities deny "racial" motive

The 25-year-old illegal immigrant [Luis Ramirez] was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated. Hate crime or not, the killing has exposed long-simmering tensions in Shenandoah, a blue-collar town of 5,000 about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia that has a growing number of Hispanic residents drawn by jobs in factories and farm fields.

An investigation continues, and no charges have yet been filed, but police say as many as six teens were involved in the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. He died early Monday of head injuries.

There was no justification for beating this man to death unless he was threatening the lives of others.

Editorial from Pottsville Republican Herald

We are aware of no evidence that Ramirez was doing anything other than working to support his family. Being an illegal immigrant is illegal — but it carries no death penalty. Maybe, as many have asserted, this was an isolated incident. Still, that in no way makes it a lesser crime.

Beating someone to death isn’t part of any “rite of passage,” misstep by the good ol’ boys or some kind of mistake. It’s homicide.

The Sun, which carred the AP story, left out the word "illegal" to describe Mr. Ramirez' immigration status.

[alien bird]

Originally Posted by Baltimatt

The Sun, which carred the AP story, left out the word "illegal" to describe Mr. Ramirez' immigration status.

So? Does it make any difference in the reporting of the story, or in the severity of the crime?

[Contumacious]

Originally Posted by Baltimatt

Mexican immigrant dies after fight in Pennsylvania town

Fatal beating cries out for justice to be served


Walking home in Shenandoah on Saturday night, a 25-year-old Mexican-born father of three was accosted and severely beaten, allegedly by young people in the area of Vine and Lloyd streets.

Although no arrests have been made and police aren’t speculating on what the motive for the attack may have been, witnesses have stated they heard racially related threats and slurs shouted during the incident, such as “You tell all your Mexican friends to get out of town.” And worse.

[hst2]

SHENANDOAH, Pa. (AP) ...The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

...Crystal Dillman, the victim's 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up here, said Ramirez was often called derogatory names, including "dirty Mexican," and told to return to his homeland. "People in this town are very racist toward Hispanic people. They think right away if you're Mexican, you're illegal, and you're no good," said Dillman, who has two young children by Ramirez and a 3-year-old who thought of him as her father.

On Dillman's fireplace mantel hangs a medallion of Jesus that Ramirez was wearing the night he was beaten. Ramirez had an imprint of the medallion on his chest, marking where an assailant stomped on him, she said.

full story

[Baltimatt]

Originally Posted by alien bird

So? Does it make any difference in the reporting of the story, or in the severity of the crime?

I read the story in the online Sun first, and when the fiancee stated "They think right away if you're Mexican, you're illegal, and you're no good.", it did make me wonder about the victim's status.

[alien bird]

"From what we understand right now, it wasn't racially motivated," Nestor said. "This looks like a street fight that went wrong."

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."

Yet, the article also state the following:

Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

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."

Wasn't racially motivated? Perhaps the initial altercation came from something else, but it sure sounds like the severity of the beating is racial. Of course, since it is small-town Pennsylvania and involved the beloved high school football team, it's just a "boys will be boys" and they didn't mean anything by it. It has to be the Mexican's fault, after all.

[kandace]

He's an illegal alien, an evil invader, according to certain (very loud) elements. Evil invaders have to be ejected by force, with lethal force, if necessary.

This brutal death is merely the culmination of the anti-illegal alien hysteria that has gripped this nation recently. Hysteria makes for poor public policy on the macro social and can lead to brutality and even murder on the micro social level.

[baltbob21206]

You know of course that if he hadn't been here, he'd still be alive. Do not condone murder or beating of anyone but if he hadn't been here, he'd still be breathing at his real home.

[Baltimatt]

Shenandoah is less than 20 miles from Hazleton, which in 2006 made headlines with its anti-illegals ordinance.

[Sprightly]

Disgusting. I hope anyone convicted receives the most extreme punishment possible.

[Baltimatt]

Originally Posted by baltbob21206

You know of course that if he hadn't been here, he'd still be alive.

There's no way to know what would have happened had he stayed in Mexico.

[baltbob21206]

Originally Posted by Baltimatt

There's no way to know what would have happened had he stayed in Mexico.

Maybe but we know what happened here. Guess in Mexico, it would have been 50/50, here, it was 100%. 50/50 was a better odd.

[OctoberSky]

Originally Posted by baltbob21206

You know of course that if he hadn't been here, he'd still be alive. Do not condone murder or beating of anyone but if he hadn't been here, he'd still be breathing at his real home.

Yes, that's true, but if Kennedy hadn't been in Dallas he'd also be alive. It still isn't clear to me that the victim here was illegal. If he was that's a different issue; and it surely doesn't justify beating a man to death. There is no record of this victim being a "threat" to this community at all. I hope they throw the book at these kids and they rot in jail. Nothing worse than a bunch of vigilantes who have been convinced by an "air of hostility" that it's OK to treat another human being this way. There's very little difference between the hostility against the jews and how the Germans ended up reacting.

[CIB]

Originally Posted by kandace

He's an illegal alien, an evil invader, according to certain (very loud) elements. Evil invaders have to be ejected by force, with lethal force, if necessary.

This brutal death is merely the culmination of the anti-illegal alien hysteria that has gripped this nation recently. Hysteria makes for poor public policy on the macro social and can lead to brutality and even murder on the micro social level.

You want more of this or less?

If you want less, I suggest you take up the cause of immigration reform, including cultural assimulation. This is merely a preview of the future. An all-out race war, unless we get our priorities straight and concentrate our immigration policies on strengthening our national polity rather than fragmenting it up into "diverse" communities.

[Baltimatt]

Had he not been in that specific place at that time, he quite likely would still be alive.

[baltbob21206]

Originally Posted by CIB

You want more of this or less?

If you want less, I suggest you take up the cause of immigration reform, including cultural assimulation. This is merely a preview of the future. An all-out race war, unless we get our priorities straight and concentrate our immigration policies on strengthening our national polity rather than fragmenting it up into "diverse" communities.

SO TRUE!!!! Can't have a double standard to law and expect the citizens to then adhere.

[baltbob21206]

Originally Posted by Baltimatt

Had he not been in that specific place at that time, he quite likely would still be alive.

Just like you said, we "There's no way to know what would have happened had he stayed in Mexico." Or any place, but here, the chances go way up that something will go bad. In certain areas here anyway.

[hst2]

Originally Posted by CIB

You want more of this or less?

If you want less, I suggest you take up the cause of immigration reform, including cultural assimulation. This is merely a preview of the future. An all-out race war, unless we get our priorities straight and concentrate our immigration policies on strengthening our national polity rather than fragmenting it up into "diverse" communities.

The dude was engaged to a white woman and thery had a kid. Pretty good assimilation.

In this area of the country the white race is dying out, but with a bang, apparently.

[OctoberSky]

Originally Posted by Baltimatt

Had he not been in that specific place at that time, he quite likely would still be alive.

I really have a hard time believing anybody would try to soften the edges of an incident like this by implying ANY fault of this victim. Where's your outrage? Working toward immigration reform is fine but trying to explain or even justify outrageous violence is far more frightening to me. That a mindset exists that would excuse this and in great numbers causes me much more concern than an immigrant, illegal or otherwise living in a small town in PA.

[hst2]

Originally Posted by baltbob21206

You know of course that if he hadn't been here, he'd still be alive. Do not condone murder or beating of anyone but if he hadn't been here, he'd still be breathing at his real home.

Yes, and the poor father who got his head beat in by a bunch of thugs who touched his daughter wouldn't be in the hospital if he'd stayed home. Brilliant point.