Peaceful Marchers Demonstrate at "Kick In the Head" Hate Crime Hearing Causing Some Delays! BREAKING NEWS: JUDGE ORDERS MURDER TRIAL!!

About 30 Peaceful Marchers, believing in their 1st Ammendment right to protest, gathered outside the courthouse chanting their call for Justice!

The Reading Eagle Reports:

Hearings for three in Shenandoah beating interrupted briefly by Latino demonstrators in Pottsville

Chanting by demonstrators from Latino groups temporarily interrupted hearings this morning in the Schuylkill County Courthouse for three Shenandoah teenagers accused in the fatal beating of a Mexican national. About 30 demonstrators were outside the courthouse in Pottsville, but their chanting could be heard inside the courthouse and the hearings were stopped. Sheriff's officials went outside and spoke to the demonstrators, who stopped their chants. Prosecutors say the defendants and another teen who has been charged as a juvenile kicked and punched Luis Ramirez into a coma on West Lloyd Street on July 12.Ramirez lived mostly in Shenandoah since he entered the U.S. illegally six years ago. According to prosecutors: The defendants, some of whom had been drinking, began the confrontation by taunting Ramirez with racial slurs.They continued to yell ethnic insults during the attack and kept beating Ramirez after he was unconscious.Ramirez died two days later in Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.Brandon Piekarsky, 16, and Colin Walsh, 17, were charged with homicide, ethnic intimidation and other offenses. Derrick Donchak, 18, was charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other offenses.Charges are pending in juvenile court against another 17-year-old from Shenandoah.

Read the Timeline of Event from the Warrant (From Previous Article)

More Updates Posted HERE as the hearing continues.

TRUTH COMES OUT DURING HEARING!!!

Pa. teen testifies at hearing in immigrant killing
A Pennsylvania teenager has testified against two friends charged in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in a small Pennsylvania town. Seventeen-year-old Ben Lawson is a football player at Shenandoah Valley High School. He says 17-year-old Colin Walsh sucker-punched Luis Ramirez and 16-year-old Brandon Piekarsky kicked the victim in the head while he was down. Prosecutors charged Walsh and Piekarsky in the illegal immigrant's death and say they also shouted racial slurs at the victim. A third suspect is charged with aggravated assault. A judge is deciding if there is enough evidence against the three to send the case to trial.
Ramirez was attacked July 12 when he crossed paths with a group of teens in the town of Shenandoah, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

More Court Testimony from Football Player friend of the Accused:

Testifying in a low, mumbly voice, (football player) Ben Lawson said he had been drinking malt liquor in the woods with Walsh, Piekarsky, Donchak and other friends a few hours before the attack. He said he drank two 40-ounce bottles and was intoxicated. Lawson, 17, said the group encountered Ramirez, 25, and a teenage girl in a park. He said another teen, Brian Scully, goaded the girl, saying, "Isn't it a little late for you to be out?"
Ramirez replied in a threatening manner in Spanish. Scully began yelling racial slurs at Ramirez and a fight ensued, Lawson said. He said Ramirez was fighting with Donchak when Walsh ran up and (sucker) punched him in the face. Ramirez fell to the ground and hit his head on the macadam, leaving him unconscious, after which Piekarsky kicked him in the head (fatal blow), Lawson said. The following day, he said, the group met at Piekarsky's house and hatched a plan to lie to police about what happened. "We made up a plan that we we're going to tell the cops that nobody kicked him, that there were no racial slurs, there was no booze, and Brian got hit first," Lawson said.

BREAKING NEWS - AP REPORTS :

3 Pa. teens ordered to trial in immigrant's death

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM – 19 minutes ago
POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A judge has ordered three teenagers to stand trial on charges related to the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in a small eastern Pennsylvania town. A judge in Pottsville said Monday that prosecutors have enough evidence to try 17-year-old Colin Walsh and 16-year-old Brandon Piekarsky on counts of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation. Eighteen-year-old Derrick Donchak has been ordered to stand trial on aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other offenses. Luis Ramirez was attacked July 12 when he crossed paths with a group of teens in the town of Shenandoah, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia. All three defendants were football players at Shenandoah Valley High School.

Final Update (It breaks my heart):

Also testifying was Elizabeth Schlack of Shenandoah. She said she heard noise and looked out her window. From about 80 feet away, she said, she saw three people kicking a man on the ground. The kicking went on for about two minutes, she said.

Official Language: Penalty - Learn English or GO TO JAIL! (Includes Legal Citizens!)

For all of you who promote "Official English" and who said this would never happen, here it is. A Judge has ruled "Learn English or Go To Jail!" The judge imposed this sentence on those here legally. As we move closer to a "Gestapo State," even with no standards set, the judge says, “There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language.”

From TimesLeader.com

Learn English or Go to Jail!
By David Weiss dweiss@timesleader.com Court Reporter, WILKES-BARRE – March 27, 2008
That’s the succinct directive Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. made as part of his sentence to four criminals on Tuesday. The defendants – Luis Reyes, Ricardo Dominguez, Kelvin Reyes-Rosario and Rafael Guzman-Mateo – all needed translators when they appeared in court to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit robbery. It led to Olszewski leveling the unusual condition. He sentenced them each to four to 24 months in the county prison, but paroled three of them because they have already served at least four months. But in order for them to avoid the 24 months in prison, Olszewski ordered the men to learn to read and write the English language, earn their GED, and, within 30 days of release, get a full-time job while on parole. The defendants, who range in age from 17 to 22, are to return to court in one year with their parole officers to take an English test, according to Olszewski’s order. “If they don’t pass (the test), they’re going in for the 24 (months),” Olszewski said.

The ruling, the judge said, is supposed to help, not punish. “There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language,” he said. “It’s a means to helping them get a better education, getting a better job. Period.” Whether the legality of the ruling will be challenged has yet to be determined.
Attorneys Joseph Yeager and Ferris Webby, who represent the suspects, are looking at the ruling and laws before deciding whether to appeal. Neither has seen such an order in any past cases, they said. “First of all, let’s say it’s unusual,” Webby said. Webby said his role as an attorney requires him to look at the legality of the ruling, but, as a person, he knows Olszewski’s choice is good for his client, Guzman-Mateo. Guzman-Mateo realizes it, too.
“My client is happy,” Webby said. “I think it’s going to help him. It’s going to help him succeed.”
But that doesn’t make it right, said Agapito Lopez, a Latino community leader from Hazleton. He said he believes the ruling is a violation of the suspects’ rights. “I think that it’s contrary to the Constitution,” said Lopez, who stressed he is not an attorney and is speaking from a lay person’s perspective. “I don’t think that is due process. … I think this can be challenged in court.” Lopez said he will speak with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union to see if the decision should be challenged.
Police said the four were part of a group of people that approached two men, Reese Tankalavage and Cletus Mumie, on May 29 on Locust Street and asked them if they had any marijuana. When Tankalavage and Mumie said no, the four suspects told them to empty their pockets. That’s when one of the people in the group struck Mumie in the head with a rawhide bone. Another man pulled out a gun. The group then searched the duo’s pockets before telling them it was “their block and they better not see them around there anymore,” police said.
In sentencing the four defendants on Tuesday, Olszewski gave Reyes, Dominguez and Guzman-Mateo immediate parole. Reyes-Rosario is doing jail time on an unrelated drug charge. His sentence in the robbery case will begin after he completes the drug sentence. Olszewski said the language condition he imposed on the defendants, who are resident aliens, was not something he had planned. Once he saw all the translators in court for one case, the idea dawned on him.
The decision, he said, could help cut down on extreme costs associated with the paying for translators for each court appearance. Plus, he said, one of the defendants only went to third grade; the others didn’t finish high school. Learning English will help them get their GED first, and then a job, he said. “Do you think we are going to supply you with a translator all of your life?” he asked them.
Olszewski is ready to face any flak from the ruling. “I’d like anyone to tell me that learning the English language is not a good thing,” he said. “I’d love to hear from them.” Learning the language could help the suspects, Lopez said. But it would not assure them of getting a job – that theory is merely mythical, he said.
“This is a country in which English is not the official language,” he said. “We cannot force people to learn the language.” Olszewski said the parties can ask him to reconsider the ruling within 10 days. No one, he said, objected to the ruling in court Tuesday. Olszewski is unaware of whether this condition had been previously imposed. It’s not the first creative sentence Olszewski has imposed. He regularly orders defendants to get and maintain a full-time job, but also helps them find work. He has his tipstaff, Ron Zukosky, coordinate with an employment agency to find the defendants work. The judge also has ordered young defendants who dropped out of school to return and finish school. “There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language.” Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.

The 1st Ammendment Denied!

English Only laws: Rob Toonkel, spokeswoman for US English, a group that promotes the use of the English language in government and that has helped several towns draw up ordinances to that effect, said such measures have nothing to do with racism.
"Official English legislation as written has nothing to do with criticizing immigrants in any way," Toonkel told AFP. "What it says is 'you can't walk into a government office and demand service in a language other than English."

Many on the ANTI side say they agree with Toonkel and continue to say "English Only" laws will not impact our ability to speak other languages in public. Are they being honest? Or, in reality are these English Only laws actually trying to violate our 1st Ammendment, Freedom of Speech?

Here is the 1st Ammendment:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peacably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The Question: "Do businesses have the right to require their employees to speak English Only when it does not impact the job itself?" Here are three Cases that say otherwise! What do you think? Will these laws, if enacted, limit Freedom of Speech?

Case 1:The Washington Times is reporting: Restaurant returns to English-only battle.
RD's Drive-In Restaurant in Page, Ariz., has reinstated its requirement that employees speak English while on the job, ending a five-year legal tussle, according to ProEnglish. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the drive-in in 2002, saying it was discriminating against its Navajo employees by requiring them to speak English on the job. The interest group ProEnglish stepped in to help the drive-in with legal costs as it fought the suit, but they lost in court in a federal appeals court in September. Now the drive-in has rescinded the original policy and put a new policy in place that includes a revised English policy.

Case 2: Ruben Navarette reports:
The Great Language Debate: Many Hispanics applaud the decision by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to sue the Salvation Army because its thrift store in Framingham, Mass., required employees to speak only English on the job. The requirement was posted, and yet at least two Hispanic employees defiantly continued to speak Spanish while at work. The EEOC claimed that their firings violated the law. English-only proponents said the EEOC's position violated common sense. The critics are wrong. It's not that a business doesn't have the right to expect its employees to speak English. It does. It just doesn't have the right to prevent workers from speaking languages other than English. That's what this case is about, after all – not a requirement that employees be able to speak English, but a rule that banned the speaking of other languages. Of course, a business has the right to consider one's ability to speak English as a prerequisite for employment. But – once the person is hired – the employer shouldn't discriminate against some employees just to put other employees at ease. For one thing, there's the First Amendment. Courts have ruled that people have the right to converse with one another in whatever language they please as long as it doesn't interfere with how they do their job.

Case 3: Ruben Navarette Reports:
Library books frighten some folks in Lewisburg, Tenn. – library books in Spanish, to be precise. A while back, at the Marshall County Memorial Library, an employee named Nellie Rivera proposed a bilingual story time where children could have books read to them in Spanish. Some townspeople raised a fuss and demanded that all books in the library – whether bought with public funds or donated by private individuals – be in English. The silver lining is that there are good folks in Lewisburg, and around the country, who scoff at such cultural censorship. As word of this bilingual backlash got around, outraged patrons began sending checks to the library that were specifically earmarked for buying Spanish-language books. Perhaps to tweak the opposition, some of the donations were in Rivera's name. That's what I love about story time – in whatever language. There's usually a happy ending.