Jack & Jill Politics

I don't live to far from where this happened and I hear lots of ignorant comments from Whites, Blacks and other Hispanics toward "illegal" immigrants. We need to change the attitudes of people, how I don't know, but I think that'd be the first step we need to take.

Thank you for posting about this tragedy here.

I have blogged about it too. Hopefully, we can get some more cross collaboration between the Latino and the African American communities. This beating once again shows how we are bound by tragedies wrapped in hate.

Remember HRC gave approval to these new outbreaks.

Is it my imagination, or has Dobbs toned down his rhetoric lately?

I don't think an African American was involved in the incident. The article said that it was 6 whites and 1 hispanic.

Actually, there was a black kid involved in this despicable act. Please, let us not lose sight of that.

The "illegal" issue is a cover to then attack the Latino community. There have been legal residents and new immigrants not able to "prove" they are American and detained.

I have posted before, it is a form a scapegoating that diverts the attention from the true culprits of poverty--big business and the government.

I thought it was at a fever pitch a few years ago, very scary. But the reports from the last week shows me that there are a lot of scared white people and unfortunately, nonwhites.

GOBAMA, he really is our hope.

don't get me started.

I'm still marveling at how Homeland Security could find Obama's immigrant aunt in a project in Boston, but can't find Osama bin Laden after eight years.

Um, I don't think DHS is charged with finding bin Laden, unless he sneaks into the country illegally.

Actually finding him is probably more the job of the Intelligence Community, and going to get him would fall under the purview of DoD (or maybe the FBI).

D, in forming Homeland Security, some aspects of the Intelligence Community got put under that umbrella, so I stand by my comment - they can find Obama's immigrant auntie, but can't find Bin Laden.

Only 64 more days until incompetence leaves the White House and Competence takes up residence.

DHS isn't looking for bin Laden.

But, hey, in 64 days, maybe we'll find him and it won't matter. Cause I don't see the search intensifying under President Obama.

In all fairness to him, it's not a top priority.

Maybe they should be. They seem to be very competent.

Heh :-)

Thanks for the love, CPL

I just don't get how one could be Hispanic and go looking to "beat up some Mexicans"- not that they should go looking to beat anyone up but you know.....!!!!!!

What blows my mind is that everybody in town knew that "mugging or just beating on strangers for fun" was a common pastime. A killing (racially tinged or not) was only a matter of time...

The one with the darker skin is indeed HISPANIC!

Police: NY immigrant killed because of race


By FRANK ELTMAN | Associated Press Writer
November 10, 2008
YAPHANK, N.Y. - Seven high school students looking "to beat up some Mexicans" attacked an immigrant from Ecuador on a street, with one of them fatally plunging a knife into the man's chest during the brawl, police said.

The killing set off a tirade of reactions from supporters of Hispanic immigrants and led a prosecutor to compare the episode to a lynching. The attack was officially labeled a hate crime by Suffolk County authorities, and some suggested that advocates of recent crackdowns on illegal immigration fomented an atmosphere of intolerance that contributed to the attack.

"Today, some of the highest leaders of our community also have blood on their hands," said the Rev. Alan Ramirez, a longtime advocate for Hispanic day laborers and Latino immigrants. "I have said for a long time that it would only take time for something like this to happen."

The dead man was identified as Marcello Lucero, a 37-year old immigrant who worked at a dry cleaners shop in Riverhead. A friend of the victim said Lucero moved to the United States 16 years ago.
The teenagers _ one junior and six seniors at Patchogue-Medford High School _ were arraigned Monday on gang assault charges and entered not guilty pleas. The teen believed to be the one wielding the knife, 17-year-old Jeffrey Conroy, was also charged with manslaughter as a hate crime. His attorney did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Police and prosecutors say the teens _ six of them white and one Hispanic _ were hanging out in a park on Saturday night around midnight when someone suggested they go "beat up some Mexicans." The group spotted Lucero and another man near the Patchogue train station and "like a lynch mob, (Conroy) and his friends got out of their car and surrounded Mr. Lucero and his friend," Assistant District Attorney Nancy Clifford said at Conroy's arraignment.

Lucero was punched in the face, and attempted to swing his belt while his companion escaped. At some point during the confrontation, Lucero was fatally stabbed in the chest and the teenagers fled. Patrol officers who had reported seeing the teens walking around Patchogue quickly arrested the group nearby.

Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said detectives have some evidence the group may have been involved in earlier, less lethal, attacks and urged any victims to come forward. He made particular note that the immigration status of victims would not be an issue in any investigation.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney's office said it is monitoring the case.

At least one of the teens has a record. Christopher Overton, 16, pleaded guilty to burglary in another fatal attack in 2007 in which a 38-year-old East Patchogue man was shot during a home robbery. His attorney denied his client was guilty of the current charge and said Overton cooperated with prosecutors on the previous case and is awaiting sentencing.

Tensions over illegal immigration have been particularly acute in Suffolk County, where tens of thousands of immigrants have moved in recent years and become a large part of the work force in fields like construction, landscaping and restaurants. The hamlet of Farmingville, about 10 miles from where the attack occurred, has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate after a series of violent attacks on Hispanics.

In 2000, two Mexican men were beaten by two locals in Farmingville who promised them work. On July 4, 2003, a Mexican family barely escaped with their lives after teens set their Farmingville house ablaze by shooting fireworks through a window.

Two years later, two Mexican immigrants fishing off a Long Island jetty were set upon by a group of four white youths who beat them and stole their money while using racial and ethnic slurs.

Ramirez and Luis Valenzuela, executive director of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, suggested that various legislative remedies to the immigration controversy, as well as comments by elected officials, may have contributed to an atmosphere of intolerance.

The county has enacted a local law requiring companies with government contracts to verify their employees are in the U.S. legally. According to a U.S. Census Bureau breakdown of Long Island's population, Hispanics comprised 12.4 percent of Nassau County residents in 2007 and 13.3 percent in Suffolk County.

"For too long, anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment has been tolerated in Suffolk County, as reflected in the introduction of anti-immigrant bill after anti-immigrant bill in the county legislature," Valenzuela said.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, a co-founder of a national group called Mayors and Executives for Immigration Reform, rejected suggestions that the killing was related in any way to the immigration debate.

"The beating, stabbing and killing of Marcello Lucero wasn't a question of any county policy or legislation; it was a question of bad people doing horrific things," said Levy.

Gov. David Paterson said in a statement that Lucero's death "is a jarring reminder that we must remain vigilant and continue our fight to eradicate prejudice in our words and in our actions."

This is a tragedy and to think there was a black kid among the accused. What is wrong with some of our children today? There was a 15-year old girl in Florida who killed her friend because she wanted her to feel the pain she caused. The racial tensions are coming to a boiling point and innocent people are being killed or hurt in the process because of the stupid actions of a few. No-one deserves to be beaten and killed, no-one.

What a terrible, shameful, awful thing.

I'm afraid this is just the beginning. The US economy is in chaos and the unthinking among us will be looking for someone to blame. Who better than the invisible "others" among us? Sarah Palin and others of her ilk throw gasoline on the fire of rage that arises out of powerlessness, and we are each powerless to effect the economy that is threatening to ruin our lives and our childrens' lives.

And here's the thing that pisses me off, and it's true of so many issues that are discussed in this country. We NEVER ~ at least officially ~ look at our part in what happens around the world.

What Jeremiah Wright said about 9/11 was correct. He told the truth. Our foreign policy created the environment in which radicals thrived. Our arrogance fueled the anger and our pompous conviction that it is our right, as Americans, to take and make use of and coopt anything on this planet (we're superior, dontcha know) was a deadly accelerant.

What no one says about the massive influx of undocumented workers into this country is that our foreign policy and our unceasing support of free market economics, the Chicago school of fuck-the-people-feed-the-rich globalization proponents, NAFTA, the World Bank, and all of the rest, create the situations in other countries that ultimately cause problems here.

Farmers in Mexico post-NAFTA couldn't possibly compete with our heavily subsidized farm exports. Families who'd farmed acreages for 200 years found themselves broke and losing their land. The population of Mexico City exploded. The population of folks coming north across the border to feed themselves and their families exploded. A way of life was destroyed and families were torn apart. Free market. . .

But all we see in this racist, bigoted, selfish, hateful land is brown people coming here uninvited. We didn't invite them, it's true, but we essentially forced the migration through our policies.

This makes me sick. And it makes me despair. Half the kids graduating high school are functionally illiterate. Can we explain US economic policy and its impact around the globe? Does it even matter when you're young and angry and hopeless and helpless? Of course not. We are just fucked.

As with so many things, "Fish rots from the head down."

The closing line of this report is perhaps the most telling. Had the community leaders who first noticed the racial tension actually put some effort and attention into the issue, it MIGHT not have gone this far.

But all too often in the communities of this country, an "US" vs. "THEM" mentality has broken out when it comes to the immigration issue, which... let's face it... is really a race issue.

I've never been to Patchogue, but I do know Long Island well enough to say that there is a very distinct racial line that you can practically SEE right around where that town lies. I've visited public schools North of there, and as you get nearer to the bucolic NYC getaway towns of the Hamptons and Northport, you will not find a SINGLE child of color in the entire district. Venture South of there, heading closer towards Queens, and you'd be hard pressed to find a White child in many of those schools.

Take a look at the perpetrators. They're young. All of them. This hatred against "minorities" didn't just come out of thin air. The hatred was probably born at home, but it fermented and grew in school. If the community leaders are serious about promoting racial harmony, then they really should have been paying close attention to what was happening in their own schools as much as a decade ago.

But a community is defined by how its leaders prioritize its agenda. It's things like social services for the poor and budgeting for its schools that can have a long term effect on either fostering or quelling an "US" vs. "THEM" mentality. Patchogue needs to look very closely at the ENTIRETY of how they run their government, and not just slap a "racial awareness" band-aid on their community IF they want to avoid a crime like this in the future.

People like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity & Sarah Palin are the culprits who are pumping up this kind of hate. They should be held accountable for creating an atmosphere of hate that leads to this kind of violence!

Two Words - FAIRNESS DOCTRINE.

Restoration of it puts Rush, Klannity and Palin out of business because every time they go on the air and say shyt that riles up the bigots, they earn their TV stations massive FCC fines, which leads to the stations saying they can't afford them anymore and fires all of them.

As for Sarah Palin, if a rabid moose came along, I'd point it in her direction...

This is a shame. It's Howard Beach and Bensonhurst all over again. I feel for the kid's family and friends, and his community.

Now, did I see a Black thug amongst those white thugs?

At about 45 seconds into the video there appears to be a a young Black man being lead away in cuffs among the other young men. This would be tragic and horrific irony if he is a Black descendant from the very slavery in this country that included hunting and killing of Blacks.

Eccentric1,

When I saw the report on the news they said he was HALF Latino. I don't get that and they didn't expound! How could it be a hate crime when one of the suspects in indeed Latino himself?!?!?!

Black and Hispanic are not mutually exclusive terms. One can be both black and Hispanic. His participation in this crime shows how easily he was influenced to hate someone who looks like himself. I am sure his attornery will be using the mob-mentality excuse. I am not totally clear of what makes a hate crime a hate crime, but I believe it is a hate crime when someone specifically targets their victime based on race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc

That is terrible. The people responsible need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!

What is wrong with people? They act as if they have lost their minds!

rikyrah: Those vile CRIMINALS had on WHITE jump suites!!

ALL THEY NEEDED WAS THEIR "HOODS!"

hate is ugly. hate has consquences. fomenting an atmosphere has consequences.