While many from D.C. and the internetosphere were at Netroots Nation discussing messaging and Comprehensive Immigration Refrom, another Latino was attacked and in the same ‘hood where Marcelo Lucero was murdered.

From AP:

NEW YORK — A Hispanic man told investigators he was beaten and robbed in a racially charged attack in a Long Island community where another Hispanic was killed in an alleged hate crime last fall, police said.

The latest incident happened around 11:30 p.m. Friday in Patchogue, where the earlier attack prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into allegations of hate crimes on eastern Long Island.

The victim in the latest episode told investigators that three young white men called him over and engaged him in conversation as he walked along Division Avenue in Patchogue, about 50 miles east of Manhattan.

One man then hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground, and the three stole cash and other items from him while making disparaging remarks about his ancestry, he told police. Police didn’t release his name and age, and they said Sunday that they didn’t immediately know whether he had been taken to a hospital.

The reason why I point this out as a problem with the accepted messaging around Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) is that the mainstream, working with orgs from the beltway, the focus is on what could be included in the non-existent bill when the Obama administration and those being held up as champions in the Senate have made it really clear what they are saying about immigrant/Latino lives.

With the health care debate being given as the reason why immigration reform must wait, then no one can act like the the two aren’t linked. We have seen how immigrants are being blamed are targeted to die.

And the Senator from my state is ok with using the term “illegal”? He might as well say spics, wetbacks, etc etc etc. and dip his hands in the ever growing bucket of immigrant/latino blood being lost.

The Feds turned their attention to this part of the country after Lucero’s murder and that hasn’t stopped roving gangs and their sick methodology. My gut reaction is to say we need roving organizations/groups of our own, protecting and organizing our communities porque no one else is.

Who wants to ride with me to Patchogue?