New charges in Marcelo Lucero hate crime case

Prosecutors unveiled new charges against a seven teens suspected of the November 2008 murder of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero.

The new indictment presented yesterday said that the youths were part of a larger gang whose purpose was to harass and injure Latinos on Long Island. The defendants were part of "a violent and racially driven pastime," Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said that included beating and robbing a Latino unconscious and threatening to kill another man with a lead pipe.

Despite Suffolk County executive Steve Levy’s initially flippant claims that Lucero’s murder would’ve been a "one-day story" elsewhere, the tragedy has brought widespread attention to increased tensions on Long Island. The hatred and disgust by some people against the area’s booming Latino population has apparently been met with a blind eye from authorities. Yesterday’s indictment further shows that incidents like Lucero’s death are unfortunately not rarities:

Jose Perez, a lawyer for LatinoJustice P.R.L.D.E.F., an advocacy group, said the new cases were “the tip of the iceberg” in a pattern of violence against Hispanics, and show that a more aggressive police response to earlier attacks could have prevented Mr. Lucero’s death.

After Mr. Lucero died, many other immigrants came forward to describe attacks. Some had never been reported; others were reported to police at the time, but no one was arrested, in part because language barriers made communication difficult, Mr. Spota said.

Image- ABC News
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, newsday.com, IHT, New York Times, WNYC, ABC News