Court rules no racist motive in murder of Wilson Pacheco
By Liz Fekete
29 October 2004
A security guard, who had later attempted suicide, and two other men, have been found guilty of the murder of Dominican inmigrant Wilson Pacheco in January 2003.
However, in sentencing the three men, the judge ruled out a racist motive. Pacheco, and a group of Dominican friends, had been refused entry into a nightclub and then pursued by the bouncer at the club, and two security guards from a neighbouring club. Pacheco had been severely beaten and then thrown into the Barcelona harbour where he drowned.
Denial of racial motive challenged
The denial of a racist motive was hotly disputed by the Association of Dominicans in Catalonia and by Wilson Pacheco's family. During the trial, a couple who witnessed Pacheco being beaten, told the court how one of the assailants commented, 'If this ******* Dominican monkey knows how to run, he will know how to swim, if not leave him to drown'. The couple say that, on witnessing the attack, they had approached a police car and asked officers to intervene. They had refused, saying that it was not their business, but that of the harbour police to intervene in the case of a 'Sudaca' (a derogatory term for a mixed race Latin American). A video of the incident showed that not one of the defendants did anything to help Pacheco once he was pushed into the water. One of the bouncers told the police officer that for a 'Sudaca, I don't get my mobile wet'
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Do you all think that this has racial undertones?
By Liz Fekete
29 October 2004
A security guard, who had later attempted suicide, and two other men, have been found guilty of the murder of Dominican inmigrant Wilson Pacheco in January 2003.
However, in sentencing the three men, the judge ruled out a racist motive. Pacheco, and a group of Dominican friends, had been refused entry into a nightclub and then pursued by the bouncer at the club, and two security guards from a neighbouring club. Pacheco had been severely beaten and then thrown into the Barcelona harbour where he drowned.
Denial of racial motive challenged
The denial of a racist motive was hotly disputed by the Association of Dominicans in Catalonia and by Wilson Pacheco's family. During the trial, a couple who witnessed Pacheco being beaten, told the court how one of the assailants commented, 'If this ******* Dominican monkey knows how to run, he will know how to swim, if not leave him to drown'. The couple say that, on witnessing the attack, they had approached a police car and asked officers to intervene. They had refused, saying that it was not their business, but that of the harbour police to intervene in the case of a 'Sudaca' (a derogatory term for a mixed race Latin American). A video of the incident showed that not one of the defendants did anything to help Pacheco once he was pushed into the water. One of the bouncers told the police officer that for a 'Sudaca, I don't get my mobile wet'
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Do you all think that this has racial undertones?