Under the leadership of Steve Levy, Suffolk County has failed to take urgent steps to protect immigrants living in constant fear of violence. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) must act aggressively to end a cycle of vicious, hate-fueled beatings of Latino immigrants.
Indeed, this is the role the DOJ has historically played in towns that have allowed racist mobs to threaten and kill people because of the color of their skin. Now, in Suffolk, as well as in other parts of the country, Latino immigrants are routinely under attack.
An investigator from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) interviewed 70 Latino immigrants who revealed the extent of hate in Suffolk—immigrants being pelted with rocks or spit at, racial epithets being scrawled on their homes and the fear of violence, aided by harassing or indifferent police officers, being ever present.
And the worst has happened. Last year, Marcelo Lucero was murdered by one of a gang of young thugs who encircled him. Just a little over two weeks ago, yet another Latino immigrant was brutally beaten in an alleged act of hate.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has done little to discourage nativist intolerance or prevent hate attacks. In fact, he has thrown coals into the fire. Levy was defensive after Lucero’s death, in denial of how his own actions have cultivated an atmosphere of hate. Before that, he once encouraged racial profiling by police. And instead of listening to long expressed concerns about hate crimes, Levy has been regularly combative with immigrant rights’ advocates and ridiculed them as the lunatic fringe.
But it is Levy who is out of touch. Anti-immigrant attacks have become so common in Suffolk that the justice department's civil rights division and the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District are jointly investigating not only hate crimes against Latinos there but also reviewing how the county’s police department has handled these crimes.
The DOJ must take overdue action in a life and death situation in Suffolk. And New York State elected and community leaders should be raining down on Levy and other anti-immigrant politicians. They can start by immediately pushing for polices recommended by the SPLC and Governor David Paterson's hate crimes task force, including prohibiting police from asking for the immigration status of crime victims, better training of police officers, and educational programs in schools.
If our state and the DOJ fail to send a strong message soon, another immigrant will be in danger of the same fate as Lucero.
Under the leadership of Steve Levy, Suffolk County has failed to take urgent steps to protect immigrants living in constant fear of violence. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) must act aggressively to end a cycle of vicious, hate-fueled beatings of Latino immigrants.
Indeed, this is the role the DOJ has historically played in towns that have allowed racist mobs to threaten and kill people because of the color of their skin. Now, in Suffolk, as well as in other parts of the country, Latino immigrants are routinely under attack.
An investigator from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) interviewed 70 Latino immigrants who revealed the extent of hate in Suffolk—immigrants being pelted with rocks or spit at, racial epithets being scrawled on their homes and the fear of violence, aided by harassing or indifferent police officers, being ever present.
And the worst has happened. Last year, Marcelo Lucero was murdered by one of a gang of young thugs who encircled him. Just a little over two weeks ago, yet another Latino immigrant was brutally beaten in an alleged act of hate.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has done little to discourage nativist intolerance or prevent hate attacks. In fact, he has thrown coals into the fire. Levy was defensive after Lucero’s death, in denial of how his own actions have cultivated an atmosphere of hate. Before that, he once encouraged racial profiling by police. And instead of listening to long expressed concerns about hate crimes, Levy has been regularly combative with immigrant rights’ advocates and ridiculed them as the lunatic fringe.
