Pennsylvania rednecks beat and kill Mexican illegal immigrant; get same sentence as beating a dog

[ShibbOleth]

2 teens get jail time in Mexican’s beating death

An all-white jury convicted the two former high school football players of misdemeanor simple assault at trial last month and acquitted them of felony counts, including aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and hindering apprehension – charges that carried lengthier sentences.

In fashioning his sentence, Baldwin acknowledged the severity of the attack, which left Ramirez on life support for two days before he died, but said he could pass a sentence only in accordance with the jury’s verdict.

“This wasn’t any fight, this was a group of young athletes ganging up on one person. That’s not a street fight,” Baldwin said, referring to the defense team’s characterization of the confrontation as a “street fight.”

“You picked out a guy who wasn’t one of you and beat the pulp out of him,” Baldwin said.

The incident divided the small, rural mining town of Shenandoah into camps for and against the boys as it became a flashpoint for racial tensions across the country.

After the verdict, Gov. Ed Rendell sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recommending that the Department of Justice pursue civil rights charges.

“The evidence suggests that Mr. Ramirez was targeted, beaten and killed because he was Mexican,” Rendell said. “Such lawlessness and violence hurts not only the victim of the attack but also our towns and communities that are torn apart by such bigotry and intolerance.”

Further

Jurors found Piekarsky not guilty of third-degree murder. Prosecutors had said he delivered a fatal kick to Ramirez’s head after Ramirez was knocked to the ground in the alcohol-fueled brawl, which occurred on a residential street in Shenandoah the evening of July 12.

Prosecutors alleged that a group of teens, which included Piekarsky and Donchak, baited Ramirez into the initial confrontation after a night of drinking, hurling racial epithets at the undocumented Mexican immigrant.

After the fight broke up, witnesses said Ramirez came back at the teens, who beat him so severely that, according to a medical testimony, brain tissue oozed out of his skull during surgery at a hospital.

From what I can find, 1st Degree animal cruelty carries a sentence of less than 2 years and/or $1000.

Of course, the good folk of bumfuck Pennsylvania took into consideration that these were good boys that just did a bad thing. Besides, he was just a dirty Mexican and not here legally.

Fortunately there is no such thing as a hate crime and normal criminal laws protect all citizens equally.

[Auntbeast]

Misdemeanor simple assault? Holy crap.

Sounds like illegal immigrants are getting slightly more respect than dead hookers.

[RandMcnally]

Here’s something similar: Ohio teen sentenced in parking lot noose attack

A central Ohio teenager accused of putting a noose around a Hispanic boy’s neck and dragging him in a parking lot has been sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Let me repeat for those that missed it. A 17 year old put a noose around someone’s neck and dragged him around the parking lot, only to stop when someone else intervened. He was sentenced to ten days. 10 days. Not years, days.

[Ephemera]

Wow. I try not to be one of those “eye for an eye” loons, and am actually opposed to the death penalty, but it’s situations like this that make me reconsider it, both for the assailant and the people that gave them such ludicrous sentences.

[LonesomePolecat]

When six black students beat a white student into unconsciousness, none of you asshole liberals blubbered about that. You miserable hypocritical bastards actually tried to pretend that the perpetrators were victims and demonstrated in support of them. A black Muslim kills a young Army recruiter in the name of Islam, and it’s not even a blip on your radar. A white reporter is murdered bythe black equivalent of the Ku Klux Klanin Oakland, a criminal organization the police are too afraid to investigate closely, and there’s not a peep out of you sanctimonious pustules.

When I see you scum expressing the same level of moral outrage when whites are the victims, I’ll be more inclined to take you fools seriously.

[Marley23]

@LonesomePolecat

When I see you scum expressing the same level of moral outrage when whites are the victims, I’ll be more inclined to take you fools seriously.

Show of hands - who here cares about being taken seriously by LonesomePolecat?

[ShibbOleth]

deleted

[Hamlet]

@ShibbOleth

deleted

I’d recommend that for the teens also.

[sailor]

@LonesomePolecat

When six black students beat a white student into unconsciousness, none of you asshole liberals blubbered about that. You miserable hypocritical bastards actually tried to pretend that the perpetrators were victims and demonstrated in support of them. A black Muslim kills a young Army recruiter in the name of Islam, and it’s not even a blip on your radar. A white reporter is murdered bythe black equivalent of the Ku Klux Klanin Oakland, a criminal organization the police are too afraid to investigate closely, and there’s not a peep out of you sanctimonious pustules.

When I see you scum expressing the same level of moral outrage when whites are the victims, I’ll be more inclined to take you fools seriously.

I think you are missing the point. Is that possible? I think the point is not the crime but the lenient punishment. What were the punishments in the cases you have cited? Why do you leave that out? Could it be that you are missing the point of the thread by a mile and a half?

[Zeriel]

@LonesomePolecat

When six black students beat a white student into unconsciousness, none of you asshole liberals blubbered about that. You miserable hypocritical bastards actually tried to pretend that the perpetrators were victims and demonstrated in support of them. A black Muslim kills a young Army recruiter in the name of Islam, and it’s not even a blip on your radar. A white reporter is murdered bythe black equivalent of the Ku Klux Klanin Oakland, a criminal organization the police are too afraid to investigate closely, and there’s not a peep out of you sanctimonious pustules.

When I see you scum expressing the same level of moral outrage when whites are the victims, I’ll be more inclined to take you fools seriously.

I dunno, I express the same level of outrage in either case (namely, none here), but whenever you post I just read it as “mi mi mi mi mi whites are so oppressed mi mi mi mi”. Good for a giggle anyway.

Only reason I even opened the thread is that it happened in my backyard.

[Sage_Rat]

While it most certainly was murder, I’ll just note that you could have written the title as “Two college students capture and kill fugitive from justice”.

There’s a reason that illegal immigrants are a problem, and it’s because they’re illegal. What the legal status is for interacting with a fugitive is, is never going to be a cut and dried issue.

@LonesomePolecat

a criminal organization the police are too afraid to investigate closely

Methinks there’s a bit of a difference between two idiots getting away with murder and scary ass mofos who practice witness intimidation and professional hits getting away with murder. One is about racism and the other is about the problems of dealing with organized crime.

[The_Weird_One]

Jesus H. Christ, what the fuck is going on. I don’t know what to say; these stories disgust me.

[emcee2k]

@Sage_Rat

There’s a reason that illegal immigrants are a problem, and it’s because they’re illegal. What the legal status is for interacting with a fugitive is, is never going to be a cut and dried issue.

No, you definitely can’t kill them, that at least is pretty cut and dried.

[Sage_Rat]

@emcee2k

No, you definitely can’t kill them, that at least is pretty cut and dried.

12 people disagree with you.

[Cat_Fight]

I totally forgot that the Boys Will Be Boys defense covers racism, too. Revolting.

[Marley23]

@Sage_Rat

While it most certainly was murder, I’ll just note that you could have written the title as “Two college students capture and kill fugitive from justice”.

Yeah, the same way I could run over a jaywalker with my car and start a thread titled “I caught a criminal red-handed.”

What the legal status is for interacting with a fugitive is, is never going to be a cut and dried issue.

Most of us are pretty sure you can’t kill people because they happen to be Mexican, actually. I think that’s pretty cut and dried.

@Sage_Rat

12 people disagree with you.

And that’s why this thread exists.

[El_Kabong]

@LonesomePolecat

When six black students beat a white student into unconsciousness, none of you asshole liberals blubbered about that. You miserable hypocritical bastards actually tried to pretend that the perpetrators were victims and demonstrated in support of them. A black Muslim kills a young Army recruiter in the name of Islam, and it’s not even a blip on your radar. A white reporter is murdered bythe black equivalent of the Ku Klux Klanin Oakland, a criminal organization the police are too afraid to investigate closely, and there’s not a peep out of you sanctimonious pustules.

When I see you scum expressing the same level of moral outrage when whites are the victims, I’ll be more inclined to take you fools seriously.

Well, if nothing else, at least I have some idea why Lonesome Polecat is so lonesome.

[emcee2k]

@Sage_Rat

12 people disagree with you.

I’m sure there’s a lot more than that. They’re all wrong.

[emcee2k]

@emcee2k

I’m sure there’s a lot more than that. They’re all wrong.

To expand on that:

I’m sure there are a lot of idiots out there who believe these guys were justified when they killed that man because he was here illegally. But, there isn’t any law or legal precedent that supports that. That may very well have been what was going on in the heads of those 12 people when they gave these guys months instead of years, but they certainly couldn’t say that.

[Giles]

@emcee2k

To expand on that:

I’m sure there are a lot of idiots out there who believe these guys were justified when they killed that man because he was here illegally. But, there isn’t any law or legal precedent that supports that. That may very well have been what was going on in the heads of those 12 people when they gave these guys months instead of years, but they certainly couldn’t say that.

I suspect it wasn’t the illegal status that was bothering them: it was being Mexican that was the problem.

For example, if it had been a young Englishman or Australian living in Pennsylvania with his girlfriend, overstaying his visa and getting some illegal work, would the same situation have happened? I suspect not, because I think there’s some racism in the mixture here.