We need to act: this is important

I have tried to create a blog that reports what's going on in the gay world without resorting to hyperbole or anger.  I felt that we all needed a place to try to understand what is going on in the LGBT community, but not be discouraged.  Sometimes that is pretty impossible.  Monday afternoon a number of websites and newspapers reported the story of the murder of a young gay man in Puerto Rico.  I searched the Internet for reporting on this murder and have translated a report I found on topix.com, a Puerto Rico news site.  I've included the Spanish translation at the end of this post for those who speak Spanish or who would like to correct my translation -- please do so.  Please write to Attorney General Eric Holder and ask that this murder be investigated as a possible hate crime.  The email is: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov



The story in English is as follows.  One detail omitted from this story is that the murder victim was a well known member and leader of the gay community


Spokespeople from “Puerto Rico Para Tod@as” (“Puerto Rico for All”) and the Human Rights Foundation demanded that an impartial investigation for the killer of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, a 19 year old gay man, who appears to be the victim of a hate crime and whose body was found on Friday found burned, decapitated, and dismembered of his arms and legs in the vicinity of Guatave, in Cayey.

The leader and spokesperson from “Puerto Rico Para Tod@s,” Pedro Julio Serrano, denounced that the investigating officer in the case, Angel Roodriguez Colon, used words that Serrano considered “inconceivable, immoral, and unethical” to describe the homocide.

“These type of people who get involved in these sorts of things and go out into the street know what can happen to them,” said Officer Rodriguez to a TV reporter. (Univision)

“It is inconceivable that an investigator would imply that a victim would be responsible for his own killing.  That’s like the absurd argument that a woman is responsible for her rape because she was wearing a short skirt.  We demand that this agent be removed from the case and that Police Chief Figuero Sancha replace him with someone capable of bringing to justice this vile murderer, without any prejudices at all.”

For his part, Ada Conde, President of the Human Rights Foundation, asked Figuero Sancha and the Secretary of Justice, Antonio Sagaradia, to comply with the law that establishes mechanisms to investigate these types of cases and that deals with hate crimes.

The story in Spanish:

Portavoces de Puerto Rico Para Tod@s y la Fundación de Derechos Humanos exigieron hoy una investigación libre de prejuicios por el asesinato de Jorge Steven López Mercado, un joven homosexual de 19 años, que se presume fue víctima de un crimen de odio y cuyo cuerpo fue encontrado el viernes calcinado, decapitado y desmembrado de brazos y piernas en el área de Guavate, en Cayey.

El líder activista y portavoz de Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, Pedro Julio Serrano, denunció que el agente investigador del caso, Ángel Rodríguez Colón, realizó expresiones "inconcebibles, inmorales y antiéticas", referentes al homicidio.

"Este tipo de personas cuando se meten a esto y salen a la calle saben que esto les puede pasar", expresó el agente Rodríguez a un noticiario televisivo (Univisión).

"Es inconcebible que el agente investigador aduzca que la víctima busó ser asesinado. Es como el abusrdo y falaz argumento de que una mujer se buscó ser violada por llevar falda corta. Exigimos la renuncia al caso de este agente investigador y que el Superintendente Figueroa Sancha ponga en su lugar a alguien capacitado que investigue este vil asesinato, por prejuicios de clase alguna", manifestó Serrano.

Por su parte, la licenciada Ada Conde, presidenta de la Fundación de Derechos Humanos, le solicitó a Figueroa Sancha y al Secretario de Justicia, Antonio Sagardía, que cumplan con la ley y establezcan mecanismos para que se investiguen este tipo de casos y que se procesen como crímenes de odio.