CATEGORY 3 RACIAL REPARATION INITIATIVES
“ THE DAY SPAIN STARTED TO TALK ABOUT RACISM ” THE CASE OF LUCRECIA PEREZ
In order to talk about racial reparation initiatives we must talk about the murder of Lucrecia Pérez and what are known as Hate Crimes . The murder of Lucrecia Pérez had huge repercussions in the Spanish State and was the first hate crime to be recorded in Spain .
The legal report qualified the case as “ murder ” on account of its premeditation , and the sudden and untimely way in which it was executed . The intention was , as the sentence indicates , to scare immigrants . “ There were black people there and a decision was made to go for them ”. The four accused admitted the facts and their involvement in them and were sentenced to prison terms . Lucrecia ’ s brother , Luís , was granted a residence permit with an expiry date and her niece Kenia received 20 million pesetas in compensation , after the Madrid Provincial Court declared the State to be vicariously liable for the death .
WHAT IS A HATE CRIME ?
According to the description on the website of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of the Spanish Government based on the 2003 report of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE ), A HATE CRIME IS :
( A ) Any criminal offence , including offences against persons or property , where the victim , premises or target of the offence is chosen because of his or her actual or perceived connection , sympathy , affiliation , support or membership of a group as defined in Part B .
( B ) A group must be based on a common characteristic of its members , such as their actual or perceived race , national or ethnic origin , language , colour , religion , sex , age , intellectual or physical disability , sexual orientation or other similar factor ( OSCE , 2003 ).
In addition , the website crímenesdeodio . info also compiles other definitions such as Hate Speech or Hate Incident , according to the contributions of the United Nations , the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE ), the Council of Europe and the European Union . Hate Speech is therefore identified as “ All forms of expression which spread , incite , promote or justify racial hatred , xenophobia , anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance , including : intolerance expressed by aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism , discrimination and hostility against minorities , immigrants and persons of immigrant origin ” ( Council of Europe Recommendation 97-1997 ). And Hate Incident : “ Any incident which is perceived as an offence motivated by intolerance on the part of the victim or any other person ” ( ECRI general policy , recommendation no . 11 ).
Furthermore , the 9th and last report to date about the evolution of hate crimes in Spain from 2021 ( https :// www . interior . gob . es / opencms / pdf / servicios-al-ciudadano / delitos-deodio / estadisticas / INFORME-EVOLUCION-DELITOS-DE-ODIO-VDEF . pdf ), written and published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Spanish Government , provides the following description of hate crimes :
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