The anti-immigrant hate speech spreading like fire is spit out and meant to burn. In the New York City suburb of Patchogue, Long Island, 37 year old Ecuadorian Marcello Lucero went do what many of us take for granted, being outside. He was met by a gang of 7 high school students who also went outside, but they had a sinister mission: to attack a Latino.

Seven high school students looking “to beat up some Mexicans” attacked an immigrant from Ecuador on a Long Island street, with one of them fatally plunging a knife into the man’s chest during the brawl, police said. A prosecutor compared Marcello Lucero’s death over the weekend to a lynching, and the attack was officially labeled a hate crime by Suffolk County authorities.

Anti-immigrant laws across the country and a history of hate crimes against people of color in general (most going unpunished), sent out a clear message to those 7 young killers, that they could attack someone based on their perceptions of who that person was and what they represented and get away with it.

There will be a vigil on Friday for Marcello.
The vigil for Marcello Lucero will be held at: the Patchogue Train Station on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, Patchogue NY 11772 at 7:00

Via / Immigration Talk With a Mexican American, Migra Matters

Image Via / Gothamist