It took the hate driven murder of Marcelo Lucero
for Suffolk’s Hispanic Advisory Board to consider ways to improve police community relations. What are they proposing? Flyers.

Mel Guadalupe, Levy’s minority affairs director, said he hoped to receive “corporate support” for the board’s efforts to distribute fliers promoting the Suffolk Police Department policy of not asking a crime victim’s immigration status and teaching officers basic Spanish phrases.

And they can’t even get such a useless program like that funded.

But Legis. Ricardo Montano (D- Central Islip) said there is “not a lot of substance” to the advisory board’s proposals, adding that the county should devote more resources to the all-volunteer board with a $5,000 annual budget.

The reality is that when Marcelo Lucero’s alleged killers began beating him and stabbed him to death, he wasn’t asked his status. It was assumed because of what he looked like.

Also being proposed is an “educational curriculum to offer to county school districts and community groups. He said the group is looking to launch a “student congress” that would help deliver a message of “acceptance of cultural diversity” in the schools.” Pero it is placed in the context of there not really being a problem in the NYC suburb.

Gutierrez said Suffolk’s official hate crime statistics, which reported one anti-Hispanic hate crime in 2007, are “hard to believe.” Guadalupe said he couldn’t say whether more than one Hispanic person was a hate crime victim last year.

I’d count on it. In fact we already know that after Lucero’s death, more Latinos were harassed and guess what they will continue to be.

What can the police and other local government agencies do to inspire the trust of the Latino population in Suffolk County?

In the words of Neuzua:

A HATE CRIME is made possible by many actors, not just one ugly mind and hand. You have the actual perpetrator of the act, the immediate culture that encourages and approves of this behavior, the legislation that provides a moral/legal underpinning for certain views, and those who craft the legislation. All will soon be held accountable.

What happened in Suffolk County and what happens in counties across the United States is a pattern and practice of hate crimes that is multiplied when the police help to cover up and protect those that commit acts of hate by promoting an atmosphere of fear. I use the term pattern and practice as that is the language of Federal civil rights law which as also failed in many ways in the protecting of people because often time the guidelines are so strict as to what constitutes a hate crime. It also doesn’t help when elected officials like Democrat Steve Levy help to promote a rhetoric of fear and hate. Pero I don’t think anyone is gonna start jailing politicians for their contributions to the pattern and practice of hate in Suffolk County, which leaves it up to, as usual, the community to step up.

Via / Newsday