On July 3, one of the most devastating cases was experienced in the streets of A Coruña in Europe, with the so-called Samuel Case.
The young Samuel Luiz was killed by a group of people in a brutal beating, with the addition of having numerous witnesses and instigators. The facts suggest that it is a hate crime, as Luiz is a gay man, but the authorities have not confirmed this qualification.
Like any viral case, a strong debate has been unleashed about the peripheral elements of the event, such as psychological studies of the attackers and what kind of elements led them to commit this homicide.
Everything but the obvious
The newspaper The country They presented an extensive piece that compiles the visions of professors who seek to shape the reasoning of the attackers.
We can see how they try to explain how “the group mentality” is able to turn off the minds of the attackers, turning them into an attack pack against the perceived enemy. This phenomenon is genuine and has existed for many years in modern society, so it is striking to bring it up in this case as part of a “vision of today’s youth”.
The article goes in this direction, stating that the attitude of Samuel Luiz’s murderers is a mixture of numerous personal and social components that led them to take an aggressive and violent attitude.
They could not leave without commenting on the issue of the effect that video games cause in youth, with expressions such as:
“At any time, the boys have before them hyperviolent series and games to which they are extremely hooked, like Fortnite.” “A huge problem is upon us”, “people will not know what is fiction and what reality”
Luis Alamancos for the newspaper El País in Europe
This makes sense from the point of view of people who see these types of acts from the periphery, covered by the fact of not being in the age ranges and without an adequate understanding of these types of situations. Put more simply, it is a renewed version of “must be the nintendos” of all life.
With a transfer to social networks and WhatsApp chats, as well as a huge consumption of alcoholic beverages, a great detour is made to get to the case of the attack on Samuel Luiz, apparently to avoid the fundamental factor of the case at all costs.
Homophobia is the word
If there is something that the LGBTQIA + community has been denouncing and fighting against for years, it is the violence that is received from hate groups in all directions. The article strongly emphasizes that the attackers “are not a gang of ancient”.
A Herculean effort to separate homophobia from the issue at every level, on the grounds that, despite the epithets and insults, the attack stemmed from a misperception of a situation.
Samuel, in the middle of a facetime in the street with his friends, was perceived as if he was recording one of the attackers, who with his group and his partners were drinking in the streets. Without paying attention to reasons, the attackers beat him up, which ended his life.
It is very difficult to explain in society how terribly common this situation is for sexually diverse people. The attacks on LGBTQIA + people are constant, real, persistent and largely protected by a society that refuses to see them, preferring to make the detour in other directions.
It is cheaper for society to blame entertainment media or social media content than homophobia. It is more reasonable to blame “little tyrants” and “parents who know how to set limits” than to the attitudes of people influenced by a specific hatred.
Samuel Luiz, whose emotional altar raised by those who feel his pain and mourn his death was vandalized on July 23 by anti-LGBT groups, was not killed by social circumstances.
He was not killed by Fortnite. Twitter didn’t kill him. The bottle didn’t kill him. The quarantine didn’t kill him. Samuel Luiz was murdered by some men who were waiting for an excuse to unleash a victim that they considered was not like them, a gay man.
These men are criminals, they committed a hate crime for which they must pay. The rest is insignificant.