Thread: NYC: Latinos claim beating of black man NO HATE CRIME

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Latino group: Beating of black man not a hate crime

BY SID CASSESE | sid.cassese@newsday.com
8:25 PM EDT, March 11, 2009

Kelvin Vargas

Kelvin Vargas (Right) and three others are accused of attacking Darryl Jackson in Roosevelt. (Photo by Howard Schnapp / March 11, 2009)

A Manhattan-based advocacy group for Latinos held a demonstration Wednesday at a Roosevelt deli to contend that the beating of a black man by a group of Hispanics on Sunday was not a hate crime.

Police have reported that some of the Hispanics hurled racial epithets at the man - Darryl Jackson, 52, of Roosevelt - as they punched, kicked and hit him with a baseball bat.

But Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America, said, "You have heard only one side of the story."

Mateo said race was not a factor in the altercation. He said that a store worker asked Jackson to stop bothering customers with his panhandling. He said the worker's son stepped in and was hit when Jackson became belligerent and threw the first punch, implying that the Hispanic group acted in self-defense.


"It's a shame that we have four people in jail for no reason whatsoever," Mateo said. "But a trial will let the truth come out."

Mateo said calling what happened a "hate crime" is an attempt to divide blacks and Hispanics. "We've always gotten along fine and will continue to do so," he saidadding, "We wish that most problems like this would result only in a fist fight, instead of going to guns and knives as so often is the case."

There were some catcalls and back and forth among the more than 50 blacks and Hispanics at the store site on Nassau Road in Roosevelt. But the really heavy arguing was between blacks supporting the Hispanics in general, although not the four who were arrested, and the blacks who said the beatings had to stop.

The former were represented most heatedly by Faye Deas, 50, who said she lives around the corner from the deli and that the Hispanics who run the store treat everybody fairly. "And I know Daryl. He's always fighting," she said.

Mateo said the store owners had gathered more than 200 signatures from black customers supporting the deli and its workers.

But one black man, who did not give his name, chastised Deas for not seeing that blacks "are getting beat up by everybody, and we aren't taking it anymore."

Mateo, a New York City activist, first made a splash on Long Island in November when he began speaking on behalf of the family of Marcelo Lucero, the Ecuadorean man killed during an alleged hate crime attack in Patchogue.

Almost immediately after Lucero's death, Mateo presented himself as the family spokesman, appearing at new conferences and regularly blasting the Suffolk officials as being biased against Hispanic people. He brought in The Guardian Angels to patrol the streets of Patchogue, a move some local critics called a publicity stunt.

http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-lideli ... ?track=rss

But Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America, said, "You have heard only one side of the story." Oho, so now there are two sides to a story? Why is it when the crime involves a latino victim, there's only one side? Everything else is called "hate" speech?

Mateo said race was not a factor in the altercation. He said that a store worker asked Jackson to stop bothering customers with his panhandling. He said the worker's son stepped in and was hit when Jackson became belligerent and threw the first punch, implying that the Hispanic group acted in self-defense. But wait, doesn't he have a basic "human right" to be there? After all day laborers bother customers every day and if anyone complains, they scream raaaacism? It takes a "group" to beat up one panhandler? How can a "group" claim self defense against one man? They can't = it's definitely looks like a hate crime to me

Originally Posted by legalatina

Police have reported that some of the Hispanics hurled racial epithets at the man - Darryl Jackson, 52, of Roosevelt - as they punched, kicked and hit him with a baseball bat.

"It's a shame that we have four people in jail for no reason whatsoever," Mateo said. "But a trial will let the truth come out."

No reason whatsoever? I guess kicking someone and beating them with a baseball bat is OK? Had it been a white man who was doing this to one of the Hispanic men, Mateo would be crying pretty loudly how this is a hate crime.

Mateo said calling what happened a "hate crime" is an attempt to divide blacks and Hispanics.

What a HYPOCRITE! You guys are the first ones to use race as a reason to divide. How does it feel having the tables turned on you?

The hypocrisy of this racist advocacy group is appalling! We know exactly what they would have been crying had this situation been reversed!!

Police have reported that some of the Hispanics hurled racial epithets at the man - Darryl Jackson, 52, of Roosevelt - as they punched, kicked and hit him with a baseball bat.

I believe thats exactly what happened. Some Hispanics can sure dish it out but when it comes to them being accused of a hate crime they deny it. If the victim was a Hispanic with 3 blacks or whites beating on him, they would demand that it be treated like a hate crime.