Street Fight or Hate Crime?

Luis Ramirez, an illegal Mexican immigrant was beaten to death last summer in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania as the result of a street fight. Although the defendants—several teenage boys all members of the same football team-- denied that the fight had anything to do with race, the case is being treated as an ethnicity driven hate crime. During the fight the defendants, used racial slurs and told the victim that “you don’t belong here.” The defense attorney argued that had the victim been white the case would be a simple street fight, but because he is Mexican it is automatically a hate crime. Although the defense brings up an interesting point, it is unlikely that it is the true case. Two of the boys were charged with homicide and one with aggravated assault, all were charged with ethnic intimidation. Since this incident last summer ethnic tensions have been much higher in the small town.
A debate over immigration began two years ago when a neighboring town passed an ordinance seeking to discourage the hiring of illegal immigrants. Ramirez’s death has brought back a lot of the tension, and many believe it might have helped create the atmosphere leading to his death. In addition to this, there are a number of cases being brought forward by Mexican residents that were not previously reported. The mayor of Shenandoah is in shock at the fear he heard expressed by some town residents. Issues are suddenly coming out of the wood work in the small town and there is much progress to be made in the assimilation of the Mexican immigrant population assimilation. Race is one of the biggest forms of bigotry in the United States today. Racism is evil in any form but hate crimes are the worst result of it and have the most tragic consequences. In Shenandoah there is tension over not only race but also employment. Ramirez was living there illegally as are many other Mexican immigrants in the town. The “all American” boys who are now charged with homicide probably grew up in families on the anti-immigration side. Socialization taught them to think negatively about the entire population; stereotyping all Mexicans into the same category. The prejudice they were exposed to from (presumably) a young age quite possibly ruined their lives. Had they not used racial slurs or explicit statements of racial hatred the street fight would have produced much lighter sentences. One also has to question whether any of the boys would have gotten so violent had they been alone. The shared responsibility for their actions because they were in a small group probably led them to take the fight further than they normally would have. The only thing one can hope is that something positive comes out of the Ramirez case; maybe race relations will improve and immigrant rights will be more widely respected.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28immig.html?_r=1&ref=ushttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/us/05attack.html?fta=y