Watch: Woman, teenage daughter allegedly attacked in East Boston for speaking Spanish
“As they beat us, they yelled, ‘This is America, speak English.’”
A Latinx woman and her 15-year-old daughter were allegedly attacked by two white women while in Maverick Square on Feb. 15, and they say it was because they were speaking Spanish.
Now, they along with Lawyers for Civil Rights, community organization Centro Presente, and others, are pushing for Boston police to move forward on the case.
The mother had just had dinner out with friends when the alleged altercation, captured on video, occurred.
“My daughter and I were attacked, punched, kicked and bitten by two white women,” the woman, identified as “Ms. Vasquez,” said in a press conference on Monday. Vasquez’s remarks were translated from Spanish to English during the conference. “As they beat us, they yelled, ‘This is America, speak English.’”
In a separate news release from Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, Vasquez said her family is now afraid of speaking Spanish in public, and that her daughter is having difficulty sleeping. Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston is a non-profit aimed at helping people of color and immigrants, and “fights discrimination” via “legal action, education, and advocacy,” according to its website.
In a redacted copy of the police report, officers spoke with the Vasquezs on scene, and the mother and daughter said that just before the alleged attack, they were speaking to each other in Spanish when the two alleged attackers went up to them and said they thought the Vasquezs were “making fun of them.” Police also wrote that the two alleged attackers “admitted that they had been drinking and acting belligerent.”
A spokesperson for the Boston police said they couldn’t comment because the investigation is ongoing. Sergeant John Boyle later told Boston.com that there haven’t been any arrests, and the department’s Civil Rights Unit is handling the case.
In a letter to Boston police, Janelle Dempsey, an attorney for Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, called the police work on the case “slow.”
“Following the attack in Maverick Square, BPD officers took statements at the scene but failed to investigate, protect the victims, or take meaningful action until prompted to do so by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office,” the letter says.
The Vasquezs want police to “to bring all relevant charges – to the fullest extent of the law – against the perpetrators,” according to the release. Hiring more Spanish-speaking officers, as well as those who can speak other languages spoken by East Boston residents, would also be helpful.
“This family’s experience was not an isolated event; acts of racism and xenophobia are alarmingly common in East Boston,” Janelle Dempsey, an attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in the release. “Most of the time, victims and witnesses are reluctant to speak out of fear and trauma. But the Vasquez family wants the police to hold the assailants accountable.”
Patricia Montes, who leads Centro Presente, is also pushing for action from police.
“Immediate and meaningful investigations of hate crimes are critical to deter further threats and violence,” she said. “We are not second-class citizens. We deserve protection and respect.”
Portions of an Associated Press report were used in this article.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com