One year ago, seven teenage boys in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY were trying to find a way to spend their Saturday night. Sounds like a typical American teenage night of boredom, but it would end in senseless hate, violence and death. The seven boys set out to do some “beaner jumping”. Yes, you read that right. These boys set out with the intention of finding a Latino to beat.
They found Marcelo Lucero, a 37 year old Ecuadorian immigrant who had been living in the United States for 16 years. They beat and stabbed him to death.
I remember writing about this a year ago. I was fairly new to the pro-migrant blogosphere and was still reeling from the murder of Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, PA.
Its hard to fully wrap my head around this idea. These boys were searching for a person of Hispanic heritage – ANY person of hispanic heritage. Where does this intense hatred come from?
Though after writing that initial post I soon learned about Steve Levy, the Suffolk county executive who had consistently been pushing a hardline anti-immigrant agenda in the area, and I started connecting the dots.
I do not draw a line separated the violence unleashed on our communities based on whether it is committed by private individuals or individuals action on behalf of the local, state or federal government. One allows and promotes the other. The continuing criminalization of immigrant communities dehumanizes and sends a message to private citizens that immigrants/Latinos/Mexicans are all criminal anyway, not worthy of protection under the law or justice.
And today, while we remember Marcelo Lucero, we must also continue to fight the dehumanization and criminalization that Mamita Mala points to in the above lines.
Nicholas Hausch, 18, pleaded guilty to four counts to settle a nine-count indictment, including conspiracy, gang assault, assault as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime in the Nov. 8, 2008, killing of Marcelo Lucero.
Hausch will testify against the six other boys facing jail time for the brutal murder. Hopefully justice will be served, but what will that justice mean for Marcelo Lucero’s family? For the Suffolk county community? For Latinos facing hate and xenophobia daily? For the character of our country as a whole?
Deadly violence represents the worst fear that immigrants deal with every day, but it is not the only one. It must be every leader’s task to move beyond easy outrage and take on the difficult job of understanding and defending a community so vulnerable to sudden outbreaks of hostility and terror.
Not only every leader should take on this task, but every American. Period.
Suffolk County rallies around the murder of Marcelo Lucero, calling for an end to the hate and violence.
If you’ve read this blog consistently, you will remember the murder of Marcelo Lucero in Suffolk County, NY earlier this year. Lucero was brutally murdered by a group of young boys who were out for a night of “beaner-jumping” – to give you an idea of the culture of hate that rules in this area.
Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, is infamous for the many anti-immigrant initiatives and county policies he’s signed into law. Recently, he has been labeled the “enabler-in-chief of the anti-immigrant violence” in Suffolk. After the murder of Marcelo Lucero, the community rallied to show up to prayer vigils and lift up the story to educate the American public on the hate still preying on the vulnerable
However… Levy continued with his anti-immigrant rhetoric, stating that the incident was receiving too much coverage and that it should only be a “one-day” story.
Thankfully, two days later, Levy issued a mea culpa apologizing for his statements. However, this is too little, too late for a community that is being torn apart by hate.
From the SPLC press release:
“The murder of Marcelo Lucero was by no means an isolated hate crime but rather part of a wider pattern of violent attacks against Latinos in Suffolk County,” said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC Intelligence Project, which produced the report. “For 10 years, political leaders and anti-immigration activists in Suffolk County have demonized Latino immigrants, and the police have appeared indifferent to their plight. We should not be surprised that Latinos are regularly targeted for violence and harassment.”
The report includes numerous first-hand accounts of immigrants being punched and kicked by random attackers, beaten with baseball bats or robbed at knifepoint. They say they are regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted with apples, full soda cans, beer bottles and other projectiles.
The anti-immigrant rhetoric in Suffolk County dates back at a least a decade to the founding of Sachem Quality of Life (SQL), a militant anti-immigrant group that spread bogus data claiming Latino immigrants were responsible for sexual assaults, burglaries and other serious crimes. The group stoked anti-immigrant sentiment, repeatedly referring to Latino immigrants as “terrorists” and labeling anyone advocating immigrant rights as traitors.
I definitely appreciate the work that SPLC has done on this issue, and for lifting up this story to the national level, but I wonder if there is something more than a teachable moment that can be latched onto here. What does it take to eradicate hate like this?
Deadly violence represents the worst fear that immigrants deal with every day, but it is not the only one. It must be every leader’s task to move beyond easy outrage and take on the difficult job of understanding and defending a community so vulnerable to sudden outbreaks of hostility and terror.
Not only every leader should take on this task, but every American. Period.
The New York Times reported Saturday that a migrant worker from Tajikistan was murdered, and decapitated, by a group of Russian ultranationalists.
The group that took responsibility for the killing issued a statement:
…in an e-mail statement sent to two human rights organizations that monitor hate crimes in Russia. The statement included a photograph of the victim’s severed head.
The statement said the killing was “a demonstration of their resolve to fight against the non-Russian occupation, and a warning to officials that the same will happen to them if they do not stop the flow of immigration,” said Galina V. Kozhevnikova, a deputy director at the Sova Center, one of the organizations that received the statement.
Some might see this story of sheer inhumane brutality as something that only happens in other countries, committed by nameless foreigners and extremists. But you don’t need to look any further than Shenandoah, Pennsylvania or Long Island or Brooklyn, NY to know that these things are occurring right here at home. The fight for migrant rights is universal and we need to start by demanding those rights in our own country.
This story, already so painful, is made even moreso by the poignant and hopeful post at Long Island Wins, about the murder of Marcelo Lucero.
Lisa Votino-Tarrant, a Long Island resident and immigrant rights advocate, has posted a very personal and powerful reflection about Marcelo’s death, one month later. Her tone, at first despondent, eventually takes on a note of hopefulness, a belief that something good and positive will come of this.
Since the night of the candlelight vigil we have seen small groups of people meeting all over Long Island. They’re discussing race, how they can help, or just trying to get to know their neighbors better. We see organizations working together to help a community heal. We see adults educating each other about their cultures. We see children who look different holding hands.
Are things perfect? Is everyone singing Cumbaya? Of course not. But I have learned that I REALLY want to visit Ecuador (have you ever looked at pictures from there?!). I’ve learned to sit back and listen a little more….lot’s of people are just looking to be heard.
But do you want to know what the most important thing I have seen is? As I walked in Patchogue yesterday while attending a community celebration of Ecuador’s culture at the First Congregational Church on Main Street….people smiled at the people who walked by them instead of keeping their heads down. A rattled and wounded community, are again holding their head’s up, knowing in their hearts that this has changed them forever…..and it might even be for the better.
I leave you with one more thought. A friend of mine a few weeks ago sent me a quote that I have looked at every morning and I thought I would share it with you: “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.” -Anne Lamott
The reflection really is quite powerful. I encourage everyone to read the full version at the Long Island Wins blog. And, despite the recent news and despite the poisonous environment that’s been created for immigrants in this country, I do believe that we have to cling to that stubborn hope. Not only that but we must all keep working to make that hope a reality.
As most of you know, I have recently been following the story of Marcelo Lucero, the Ecuadorean immigrant beaten to death in Long Island. Unfortunately, Marcelo’s story is not an isolated incident. Hate crimes against Latinos rose 40% between 2003 and 2007.
Wait. Let me think about that for a second. Today, when I heard that Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel Sucuzhanay were brutally beaten, while walking arm-in-arm, by random attackers, presumably for their ethnicity and/or sexual orientation, I was not surprised. The fact that I partially expected news like this breaks my heart.
Three men came out of the car shouting at the brothers, Jose and Romel Sucuzhanay — something ugly, anti-gay and anti-Latino. Vulgarisms against Hispanics and gay men were heard by witnesses, the police said. One man approached Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, the owner of a real estate agency who has been in New York a decade, and broke a beer bottle over the back of his head. He went down hard.
There was a great feature published in New York Magazine on Sunday, about undocumented families living in the New York area. It lays bare the daily reality of fear facing immigrant communities. In the wake of the brutal murder of Marcelo Lucero in Long Island, immigrants across the region are nervous about their safety and the safety of their families.
The tension is subterranean, but unremitting. By mayoral executive order, the police are banned from casual questioning about immigration status—but who knows, as Alberto said, “when we’ll bump into a racist cop and he’ll ask for our papers?” And so you’ll see certain dark-skinned people move to the next car when they spot a blue uniform on the subway. They steer clear of hospitals until they are too sick to stand. The undocumented are muted when landlords withhold heat, or bosses refuse to pay, or Feds search their bedrooms without warrants. When you are “out of status,” you learn to keep quiet. To dodge exposure. To stay to work another day
This feature is a MUST read. Check out the full piece here.
I have had the unfortunate task of covering the brutal murders of both Marcelo Lucero and Luis Ramirez on this blog. I have also posted several times on the spike in hate crimes against Latinos that is being witnessed in the United States. The hate speech and the vitriolic rhetoric surrounding the issue of immigration has created a violent and dangerous environment for all immigrants, and specifically Latinos.
“We believe that the Justice Department has to become more aggressive in prosecuting hate crimes,” said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, one of the nation’s historic civil rights organizations. “As a country, we’ve come a long way, but there is still more change needed.”
“Hate crimes such as these must be investigated and prosecuted fully at the local and federal levels,” stated John Trasviña, MALDEF President and General Counsel.
Additionally, the organizations connected the dots between hate speech and the violence inflicted on immigrants. It is time to call for an end to the dehumanization of immigrants that allows unthinkable violence and hatred to enter into the mainstream.
“There is a direct connection between the tenor of the political debate and the daily lives of immigrants in our communities. It is no accident that, as the immigration debate has demonized immigrants as “invaders” who poison our communities with disease and criminality, haters have taken matters into their own hands and hate crimes against Latinos are on the rise for the fourth consecutive,” said Michael Lieberman, Washington Counsel, Anti-Defamation League.
While the groups cited Barack Obama’s election as marker for how far we’ve come as a nation, they also emphasize that is a starting point, from which to build on for a more hopeful and less hateful future.
This Monday, national civil rights organizations will hold a news briefing to denounce the rise in hate crimes affecting communities of color across the country.
Last Friday, November 14 at 7:00 p.m., members of the community held a candlelight vigil for Marcello Lucero at the Patchogue Train Station.
Calling it a “wake up call for America,” four national civil rights organizations will hold a joint news conference on Monday, November 24 to denounce the recent wave of brutal hate crimes against communities of color.
Representatives from NCLR, the Asian American Justice Center, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) will address the recent FBI report on the rise in hate crimes nationally, as well as a number of other incidents of hate during and since the election.
The event will include streaming video and telephonic dial-in capabilities.
WHERE:
Raul Yzaguirre Building
1126 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
VIDEO STREAM:
www.nclr.org/risinghatecrimes
DIAL-IN:
(866) 835-8893
Read the complete WCBS-TV article: www.wcbstv.com/topstories/hate.crime.bias.2.861881.html
This past Friday, Marcelo Lucero was mourned by more than 500 people at the Congregation Church of Patchogue, in Long Island, NY. The funeral service comes exactly two weeks after Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant, was beaten and stabbed to death by a group of 7 teenagers who claim they were out looking “to beat up some Mexicans”.
“This is a community struggling with itself,” the mayor said. “There is the Hispanic community that is trying to understand why this is happening to them. But what you don’t hear is anger. You hear a lot of confusion, but you also hear a lot of people trying to say, ‘How are we going to stop this and how can we help.’ ”
[Sunday} on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw cited NDN in asking Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) whether the weak showing of the Republicans these last few years with Hispanics was endangering their Party's ability to be a majority in the 21st century.
Regardless of your party affiliation, it is clear that Latinos were the decisive vote in this past election. It is also clear that they swung towards the Democrats. An excerpt from the full transcript of the interview (which is posted at NDN):
Senator Martinez: The fact of the matter is that Hispanics are going to be a more and more vibrant part of the electorate, and the Republican Party had better figure out how to talk to them. We had a very dramatic shift between what President Bush was able to do with Hispanic voters, where he won 44 percent of them, and what happened to Senator McCain. Senator McCain did not deserve what he got. He was one of those that valiantly fought, fought for immigration reform, but there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we’re going to be relegated to minority status. (bold added).
The nativists and anti’s can no longer get away with their language of hate and their scapegoating of Latinos. Politically speaking, it is suicide. And realistically speaking: it is aiding and abetting in the murder of innocent immigrants. Stop the hate.
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