You may have heard about the terrible hate crime that occurred in Suffolk County recently:
Marcello Lucero, 37, was walking to a friend's apartment in Patchogue, New York, when he was attacked late Saturday, police said. He was stabbed in the chest and died of his injuries. A friend walking with Lucero was not injured.
The seven teens were trying "to find Latinos and to assault them," said Suffolk County Police Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick. "That was what they went out to do that night, and that's exactly what they did do. ... They were actively seeking victims."
You may not have heard of the role that Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's anti-immigrant race baiting played in the attack:
Mateo said that Hispanics Across America and Lucero's relatives have retained a law firm and may file suit against the youths' families "to make sure the parents of these seven kids pay the consequences."
But he and other community leaders also laid blame at the feet of Steve Levy, Suffolk County executive.
"He has brought this hate that exists here amongst the Hispanic community," Mateo said. "He has legislated over and over again against Hispanic immigrants. ... He should be the person not welcome in this community."
Here's a Times piece on Levy:
His first move last fall was to try to ''deputize'' county police officers as federal immigration agents. When the police union balked, he turned to lending their services to the Town of Brookhaven's building department.
The town had its sights on what it said were 117 illegal rooming houses in Farmingville, almost all crowded with laborers who cut lawns, bus dishes and paint houses for sub-minimum wages.
When outraged advocates for immigrants called his tactics ''ethnic cleansing,'' he dismissed them as a ''a lunatic fringe.'' He lambasted newspaper and television coverage of the men left homeless by the rooming house raids, telling reporters at a news conference on Monday that they had missed the real story, about the ''integrity of neighborhoods,'' and sputtering in indignation at any suggestion that he was singling out Hispanic immigrants or playing to voters' prejudices.
''I like Steve, but I think what's he's done is shameful,'' said Paul Tonna, a county legislator. ''And the fact that many people in Suffolk County are happy about it -- I hear his poll numbers have gone up since he did this -- is even more shameful.'' The poll results he referred to could not be confirmed.
To those of our readers who live in Monroe County, this is all too familiar. Remember these mailers that Steve Minarik County Executive Maggie Brooks sent out last year:
We all ought to hope and pray that we don't see hate crime anywhere in the state or in the country every again. But if we see it in Monroe County, the fault will be entirely Maggie Brooks's, although the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle would likely blame it on rap music.
Obviously -- and unfortunately -- this problem extends far beyond state and county borders:
Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.
|
