In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

No words.

Jill

This is so, so sad:

The two brothers from Ecuador had attended a church party and had stopped at a bar afterward. They may have been a bit tipsy as they walked home in the dead of night, arm-in-arm, leaning close to each other, a common tableau of men in Latino cultures, but one easily misinterpreted by the biased mind.

Suddenly a car drew up. It was 3:30 a.m. Sunday, and the intersection of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a half-block from the brothers’ apartment, was nearly deserted — but not quite. Witnesses, the police said, heard some of what happened next.

Three men came out of the car shouting at the brothers, Jose and Romel Sucuzhanay — something ugly, antigay and anti-Latino. Vulgarisms against Hispanics and gays were words heard by witnesses, the police said. One man approached Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, the owner of a real estate agency who has been in New York a decade, and broke a beer bottle over the back of his head. He went down hard.

Romel Sucuzhanay, 38, who is visiting from Ecuador on a two-month visa, bounded over a parked car and ran as the man with the broken bottle came at him. A distance away, he looked back and saw a second assailant beating his prone brother with an aluminum baseball bat, striking him repeatedly on the head and body. The man with the broken bottle and another man from the car joined the beating and kicking.

“They used a baseball bat,” said Diego Sucuzhanay, another brother. “I guess the goal was to kill him.”

I hope they find the guys that did it. And I hope the best for the Sucuzhanay brothers.

UPDATE: Even though they aren’t in the same town, the Guardian Angels make me feel a little better.

15 thoughts on No words.

  2. I cried when I read about this. A lot. But there was one paragraph in the Times article that I thought was really strange:

    They left the bar before 3:30 a.m., said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, and were walking arm-in-arm. Despite the cold, the men were dressed lightly: Romel wore a tank top and Jose was wearing a T-shirt. One or both may have had a jacket slung over their shoulders, officials said.

    What is this information supposed to suggest? That somehow, because they were “lightly” dressed with jackets slung over their shoulders that they looked queer? Why was this included in the article? Sadly, it wouldn’t seem odd to me if a female victim’s clothing was mentioned in an article about an assault.

  3. You’re right, there are no words for this. I hope they find the men that did this and that they are all put away for a long, long, time, because they are obviously very sick.

  4. What is this information supposed to suggest? That somehow, because they were “lightly” dressed with jackets slung over their shoulders that they looked queer? Why was this included in the article?

    I live in a city with a very large, thriving gay community. Theres at least two gay bars within walking distance of my apartment and just a little further away is a well-known lesbian neighborhood. I’ve never really associated being lightly dressed with being gay, just with being either drunk or not particularly bothered by the cold. Call me confused, I guess.

    UPDATE: Even though they aren’t in the same town, the Guardian Angels make me feel a little better.

    I’ve got really mixed feelings about the Guardian Angels and other community policing groups. On the one hand, they’re a great idea, they might just be the visible citizens a community needs to hold back the broken window effect, and I know that in Chicago similar groups have acted as much as a check on the police as on the criminal element (though personally I’d prefer Panthers). On the other hand, I always worry about the kind of person these kinds of groups are going to attract and whether or not we’re not just trading disgusting assaults on people perceived to be gay for disgusting assaults on people perceived to be criminals (young, of color, rough looking, dressed wrong, etc).

  6. This is incredible ! … Two Latinos have been brutally killed in New York City in less than a month :

    Jose Sucuzhanay and Marcelo Lucero in Long Island, New York City.

    Add these to the brutal beating and kicking that took the life of Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah Pennsylvania last July.

    These Brutal Murders are repugnant. The special Cruelty, Sadism and Inhumanity. The victims were all hard working, peaceful, honest and nice people.

    I would consider all these attackers as perfect Terrorists and Cowards.

    I have a blog to denounce Racial Murders and Racial Hatred. And to profile the good things of the Victims and their Poor families. I also give information on brutal murders of Gays like Matthew Shepard and what happens day to day :

    Raciality.com

    Vicente Duque

  7. Another example of how homophobia and gender policing hurts everyone.

    The Guardian Angels have recently been introduced to my city and are having a hard time recruiting members. It’s been pointed out by community members that all the effort they spend training people to do this might be better spent in somehow intervening in the community to change the conditions that lead to the type of crime that the Guardian Angels are there to deter – young, poor, bored teens roaming around looking for people to attack. After all, we have the police, and if kids know the Guardian Angels are patrolling X area, they will simply move their activities elsewhere – that’s if they even care about the GAs’ presence in the first place, which is doubtful.

  8. Olivetti: I suspect the description was in there simply to help the reader picture the situation. There’s not always a subtext.

  9. “UPDATE: Even though they aren’t in the same town, the Guardian Angels make me feel a little better. ”

    The GA’s have a headquarters in Chelsea. I used to work with a former member on the Lower East Side.

    Isn’t there founder hardcore right wing? Like pro-Bush and pro-war on Iraq?

  10. This happened one block from where I live and where I work as a teacher. I am trying to use this tragedy as a jumping off point for discussions about anti-immigrant sentiment that exists in the school (and, I guess, in the larger community), despite there being a large immigrant population and an even larger first generation immigrant population.

  12. William:

    I always worry about the kind of person these kinds of groups are going to attract and whether or not we’re not just trading disgusting assaults on people perceived to be gay for disgusting assaults on people perceived to be criminals

    Well, with Curtis Sliwa, you don’t need to pick, you can have both.

  14. It sounds like the men weren’t actually killed, which is a huge relief. Hopefully, they’ll find the people who did this. So many crazy things have been going on in the past couple years, like random people being assaulted or killed, either because of their race or for money. Someone else back east (I forget the town) broke into a couple’s home, beat the man (a war hero) to death in front of his wife, and raped the woman. Sometimes I think we should bring back hard labor sentences for the most heinous and senseless crimes. If people see that there are CONSEQUENCES they’ll stop hurting and killing innocent people, and the punishments won’t actually need to be used, although I suppose cash-strapped municipal governments could always use cheap gravel.

  15. I have lists of Murdered People in Hate Crimes, including Women, some sexually enslaved, tortured, humilliated, beaten and kicked.

    A very long list of Ecuadorean ( and Latinos ) beaten and kicked to death in New York City :

    Manuel Aucaquizhpi 1994
    Rene Perez 2007
    Marcelo Lucero 2008
    Jose Sucuzhanay 2008

    ( I have more victims in my lists )

    Add Luis Ramirez kicked to death in Shenandoah Pennsylvania in July 2008

    Even White People like Senator Tom Duane have been savagely attacked and beaten for being Gay. By gangs of cowards.

    I have a very long list of victims, and even Girls that have been beaten, kicked or enslaved for weeks for Sexual Pleasure, Sadism,Torture and Humilliation.

    And I try to explain the crimes, murders, etc … the best I can.

    Here :

    Raciality.com

    Vicente Duque

Comments are currently closed.