Feds to probe “discriminatory policing” on Long Island

There is a climate of fear amongst the Latino population in parts of Long Island as a result of several high-profile bias attacks. It was nearly a year ago that Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero was beaten and killed allegedly by a group of teens. Another Latino was assaulted in August by assailants who yelled racial slurs like calling him "a *** Mexican”.

The aforementioned hate crimes and other denunciations made by the Latino community have caught the attention of federal officials. A Justice Department (DOJ) spokesman said this week that they would investigate the Suffolk County police department for “discriminatory policing” against Latinos. "This is a civil, pattern or practice investigation that will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law by members of the SCPD," said a DOJ statement issued on Monday.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer replied that he would be willing to cooperate with the fed probe yet underlined that cops “respond properly to hate crimes”. Local Latino rights groups welcomed the DOJ inquiry:

“For a long time Latinos in Suffolk County felt that the Suffolk County police have been hostile or indifferent to their well-being and that they have not been treated as white residents have been treated,” said Foster Maer, senior litigation counsel for LatinoJustice P.R.L.D.E.F., an advocacy group based in Manhattan that had been pressing the Justice Department for the inquiry.

“Hopefully,” he added, “we can look forward to a new day on Long Island when Latinos can have full confidence that the police out there are serving them as well as the police are serving others in the community.”

The DOJ investigation comes roughly two months after the Southern Poverty Law Center accused Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy of "verbal immigrant-bashing" since taking office in 2003.

Image- newsday.com (“Jacob Lucero, brother of Marcelo Lucero who police say was attacked by a group of seven that eventually stabbed him to death in Patchogue.”)
Online Sources- newsday.com, The Latin Americanist, New York Times, LoHud.com

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