by José de la Isla & Jackie Guzmán
Marcelo Lucero
The Suffolk County, N.Y., murder of Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old Ecuadorean national who had lived in the United States for 16 years, has sparked a new level of concern about hate crimes.
Six of the nation’s leading civil rights groups are sounding the alarm about the nature of such incidents.
The National Council of La Raza, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian American Justice Center, Anti-Defamation League and National Urban League conducted a video-streamed news conference Nov. 24 at www.nclr.org/risinghatecrimes. Their press alert was themed as a “wake up call for America.”
Janet Murguía, president and CEO of NCLR, said that the polarized debate over immigration has led to the increase in violence and hate groups targeting Latinos.
“And the key players in this wave of hate are found among elected officials and the media, especially talk radio and cable news,” she said, referring to hosts such as Lou Dobbs and Michael Savage.
Seven teenagers have been arraigned on gang assault and other crimes in the Lucero murder. Some are now facing new hate related charges. They are also alleged to have attacked another Hispanic man who escaped a half-hour before Lucero was assaulted near the Patchogue train station.
Federal authorities including the FBI have investigated 750 incidents involving violence, threats, vandalism and arson against Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs and South Asians between Sept. 11, 2001 and March 2007. NAACP Washington bureau director Hilary Shelton said that now, while the nation should be celebrating, “There are unfortufi lled with hatred, fear and division.”
Last month the FBI released a report claiming, “Hate crimes involving race and religion declined by 1.3% in the U.S. last year.” However, the same report showed crimes against Hispanics increased for fi ve straight years, from 595 in 2003 to 830 in 2007, with similar increases for Asians.
The presidential election drew public attention to one form of race bias, while other animosities remain unharnessed.
Referring to incidents around the country that rise and fall, AAJC’s Priya Murty told Weekly Report, “We are supposedly in this post-racial state, but that has not been borne out.”
Noting that individuals often do not even report incidents, her group has documented many occurrences which attempted to associate the president-elect with Arabs, Islam, unchristian faith, and terrorism — all xenophobic digressions from reality.
The same phenomenon, she claimed, has been abundantly expressed about Sikhs and immigrants in noteworthy incidents of intimidation perpetrated on South Asians.
The Anti-Defamation League at the time called for a renewed commitment to prevent prejudice-based crimes. Hispanic Link.
