Latinos Recall Pattern of Attacks Before Long Island Killing

Reporter Anne Barnard (Latinos Recall Pattern of Attacks Before Long Island Killing, NYTimes, 1.8.09) does a terrific job detailing the pattern of attacks on Latino Immigrants in and around the Village of Patchogue (Suffolk County, New York) as well as the pattern of neglect by Suffolk County officials.

Suffolk officials dismissing the pleas of immigrant leaders allowed an escalation of attacks and the eventual hate murder of Marcelo Lucero in November.

Carlos Orellana, a construction worker from Ecuador, was walking home from work in this small Long Island town on July 14, he said, when about a dozen teenage boys on bicycles knocked him to the ground and kicked and beat him, shouting, “Go back to Mexico.”

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Attacks like the one Mr. Orellana reported have drawn new attention since Marcelo Lucero, another Ecuadorean immigrant, was stabbed to death on Nov. 8 near Main Street. Prosecutors say seven 16- and 17-year-old boys, mostly from neighboring Medford, were attacking Mr. Lucero when one of them rushed at him with a knife. The attacks were such an established pastime that the youths, who have pleaded not guilty, had a casual and derogatory term for it, “beaner hopping.” One of the youths told the authorities, “I don’t go out doing this very often, maybe once a week.”

That was not news to Latinos in Patchogue, who say that regular harassment, muggings and assaults have had them living in fear — 11 men told The New York Times of 13 attacks, nine of them in the past two years.

But the Suffolk County police said it was news to them.

Reports of Attacks on Immigrants in Patchogue

Related: Reports of Attacks on Immigrants in Patchogue