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It's been 13 years since my cousins Denis Calderon and Julio Maldonado were attacked by a gang (of 20+) young drunken racist in North East Philadelphia. They are victims of hate, a wrongful conviction and are now facing deportation as a result of IIRIRA. When will this injustice end?
I still remember how I first heard of the incident. I was with family and was just arriving Virginia Beach (wee hours of the morning) when I decided to turn on the radio to hear the day's forecast when suddenly I heard... "Denis Calderon and Julio Maldonado have been arrested for aggravated assault... ". I then turned to my hubby and said "WOW, check that out... there are two Latinos in VB with the same name as my cousins..." because "NO way, NO how", would I have ever imagined that my cousins who are loving, non-violent good guys would ever do such a thing, besides Julio lives in NY and Denis in Philly and I was in VB... so I thought, nah... just a coincidence.
Boy was I wrong... as I learned the next morning when after calling my sister to check in (yeah, we're a very close family), she told me that Denis and Julio had been attacked the night before and that they were "OK, although Denis had been stabbed, it didn't seem to be deep cuts..." and that the police were just holding them until further investigation. Well, since my family has never dealt with any criminal legal issues in the past, they just trusted everything was going to be alright, since it was an attack that they survived.
Boy were we wrong... evident by the fact that Denis and Julio are now facing deportation as a result of the miscarriage of justice that occurred during their trial and all the injustices they have faced since then.
Oh yes, there is a lot in between and too many details to include on this post, but this is my first and it will not be my last... meanwhile
PLEASE VISIT http://www.DenisAndJulioAndFai... to read the issues that impacted these Latinos and how they were victims of hate and
SIGN OUR PETITION at http://www.change.org/actions/... to HELP END THE INJUSTICE FOR DENIS and JULIO |