DmMic

American racists dominate the anti-illegal immigrant movement and will resort to violence and murder. I believe the hateful rhetoric posted and distributed by hateful anti-immigrant groups and their allies in the news media, such as Lou Dobbs, have inspired the young to attack and kill. The police not wanting to call this attack a hate crime is outrageous. An attack against a black, jewish, or gay person which included racial, or anti gay slurs would have earned a hate crime charge against the attackers. Murdered at 25 by American racist killers who are only teenagers.

---

-------------------------------------------------
-------------
In this photo provided Crystal Dillman, Luis Ramirez lies in his hospital bed
hours before his death at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa.. Ramirez,
25, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, died Monday, July 14, 2008 from injuries
he received in a beating in Shenandoah, Pa.

(AP Photo/Crystal Dillman)

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Mexico-Danville2C-Pa/pho
to//080718/480/38b3ea70b56240b1a56a54bc6c188de7//s:/ap/
20080718/ap_on_re_us/immigrant_killing_students

http://tinyurl.com/5wlq3j

-------------------------------------------------------
------------------

Fri Jul 18, 1:24 PM ET

Friday, July 18, 2008 (AP)

Immigrant's beating death exposes tensions in Pa.

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer


(07-18) 11:12 PDT Shenandoah, Pa. (AP) --

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.

Now he is headed back to Mexico in a coffin.

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.

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.

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.

Police Chief Matthew Nestor acknowledged there have been problems as the

community - the birthplace of big band musicians Tommy and Jimmy

Dorsey and home of Mrs. T's Pierogies - has tried to adjust to an

influx of Hispanics, who now comprise as much as 10 percent of the

population.

Teenagers have sprayed racially tinged graffiti and yelled racial slurs at

the newcomers, he said.

"Things are definitely not the way they used to be even 10 years ago.

Things have changed here radically," Nestor said. "Some people could adapt

to the changes and some just have a difficult time doing it. ... Yeah,

there is tension at times. You can't deny that."

Police are still interviewing suspects and witnesses. Preliminarily,

though, they have determined that Ramirez, who worked in a factory and

picked strawberries and cherries, got into an argument with a group of

youths that escalated into a fight in which he was badly outnumbered.

"From what we understand right now, it wasn't racially motivated," Nestor

said. "This looks like a street fight that went wrong."

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."

Shenandoah Valley High School principal Phillip Andras said he knew little

about the alleged involvement of any football players. A call by the AP to

the athletic director was referred back to the principal.

But the players' possible involvement has added to interest in the case.

Football, along with the town's many block parties and festivals, is a

major attraction; home games typically draw thousands of fans.

Arielle Garcia and her husband, who were with Ramirez when he was beaten

late Saturday, said they had dropped their friend off at a park but

returned when he called to say he had gotten into a fight.

She saw someone kick Ramirez in the head, she said, and "that's when he

started shaking and foaming out of the mouth."

The Garcias said they heard the youths call Ramirez "stupid Mexican" and

an ethnic slur.

Burke, the former Philadelphia officer, said she saw shirtless youths

swarming around Ramirez, called 911 and went outside, when she heard a

youth yell obscenities and make the get-out-of-Shenandoah remark.

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."

(This version CORRECTS the gender of the friend in the 14th paragraph,

beginning "Retired Philadelphia ...".)

-------------------------------------------------------
---------------

Copyright 2008 AP