There’s a “Beaner” hate in Patchogue, New York so strong that people are being beaten and murdered — and to comprehend the vileness of the crimes, you need to understand that “Beaner” is a derogatory term for Latinos.  The rest of the history of violence flows from that ethnic slur.


The Southern Poverty Law Center just released a report called “Climate of Fear: Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County, New York” and the conclusions are stunning. 

The year for us is 2009 — but in Suffolk County — it appears they are stuck in the ongoing race hatred of the 1950’s.

Less than one year ago, on Nov. 8, 2008, Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant, was murdered in the town of Patchogue, N.Y. The killing, police say, was carried out by a gang of teenagers who called themselves the Caucasian Crew and targeted Latino residents as part of a sport they termed “beaner-hopping.” It highlighted a growing national problem — violent hatred directed at all suspected undocumented immigrants, Latinos in particular. Officials in Suffolk County, N.Y., where Patchogue is located, minimized the tragedy, with the county executive even suggesting that it would have been a mere “one-day story” if not for earlier publicity about his and other residents’ anti-immigrant activism over the prior decade.

But wait, there’s more:

The Lucero murder, while the worst of the violence so far, was hardly an isolated incident. Latino immigrants in Suffolk County are regularly harassed, taunted, and pelted with objects hurled from cars. They are frequently run off the road while riding bicycles, and many report being beaten with baseball bats and other objects. Others have been shot with BB guns or pepper-sprayed. Most will not walk alone after dark; parents often refuse to let their children play outside. A few have been the targets of arson attacks and worse. Adding to immigrants’ fears is the furious rhetoric of groups like the now-defunct Sachem Quality of Life, whose long-time spokesman regularly referred to immigrants as “terrorists.” The leader of another nativist group, this one based in California, was one of many adding their vitriol, describing a “frightening” visit to an area where Latinos are concentrated in Suffolk: “They urinate, they defecate, [they] make sexual overtures to women.”

The most amazing part of the SPLC’s report
is that the only way this “Beaner Hated” can grow and be sustained in Suffolk County is because the government and its public employees aren’t doing enough to stop the crimes against the immigrants — and that, mixed with a high influx of immigrants — makes for a roiling pot of fury and vengeance that cannot, and shall not, be solved by turning the other cheek and pretending the bloodshed doesn’t matter. 

The repressed always arise higher than their original oppression and they take back their respect in the methodical, non-abstract, removal of their tormentors — by any means possible.  One county’s racist policy will only be flipped and become a new policy of hatred when, inevitably, the crushed minority finally becomes the majority power.

6 Comments

  1. What compels people to be so hateful in 2009 with all we have learned and grown to know over the years? Hatred seems passed on from generation to generation and it makes me wonder how we will be rid of it.

  2. Excellent questions, Gordon! I think it is economics: Whites don’t want “Beaners” taking over any job — even jobs that the Whites won’t work. The real trouble comes when these vigilante gangs are free to roam without punishment or the enforcement of local laws. They, then, become the law of the land by default.

  3. Will you please stop spreading false news. Yes, Marcelo Lucero was murdered in Patchogue Village. However, the perpetrators were NOT from Patchogue Village or or even Greater Patchogue. One of them was even of Puerto Rican descent. Before you spread vile news about a place and its people, why don’t you visit and see our Latino population walking our streets with their children, riding their bikes, shopping alongside non-Latinos without fear?
    The latest incident at a local church was perpetrated by a Latino who had some differences with the congregation. It had nothing to do with racism.

  4. karenferb —
    “Nothing to do with racism?” You’re kidding, right?
    I’ll let the SPLC answer you and the history of Racial Violence in Patchogue:

    All seven youths accused of participating in the attack on Lucero reside in Patchogue or Medford — predominantly middle-class towns whose strip malls and pizzerias appear in sharp contrast to the lavish wealth on display elsewhere in the county. Suffolk County has one of the steepest wealth gradients in the country. Six of its ZIP codes are among the 100 wealthiest in the United States. The village of Sagaponack, one of a group of seaside communities collectively known as the Hamptons, is the most expensive ZIP code in the nation, with a median home sale price in 2005 of $2.8 million. It’s home to investment bankers and real estate tycoons.
    2001
    Franco Carmero is attacked in Patchogue by about a dozen white teens. They throw him to the ground, hit him with a baseball bat and break two teeth. Carmero reports that when police arrive, they simply tell everyone to go home. (The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2009)
    2005
    July 12
    A 61-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant is badly beaten in Patchogue by three white men as he pushes a shopping cart through the streets collecting cans. Before the attack, the man is asked if he has a green card. “Then they started pummeling him,” Suffolk County Hate Crimes Detective Robert Reecks tells reporters. The man, whose name is not made public, suffers a broken eye socket and facial bruises. (Newsday, July 27, 2005)
    2007
    Sept. 22
    More than a dozen teens throw rocks, sticks and logs at Sergio Yanza’s house in Patchogue as he and others sit on the porch. The teens also shout disparaging remarks about “Spanish” people. Yanza is hit in the back of the head with a rock and suffers a cut requiring eight stitches. (The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2009)
    Sept. 23
    Kevin Shea, who is later implicated in the 2008 murder of Marcelo Lucero, allegedly attacks a Latino man, Luis Piña Tigre, in Patchogue. (Newsday, Jan. 29, 2009)
    Dec. 2
    Jeffrey Conroy, Jordan Dasch, and José Pacheco, all later implicated in the Lucero case, allegedly attack a Latino man, José Hernández, in Patchogue. A week later in Patchogue, Hernández is again assaulted, this time allegedly by Conroy, Pacheco and Anthony Hartford. (Newsday, Jan. 29, 2009)
    2008
    March 17
    Anthony Hartford, later implicated in the Lucero murder, allegedly attacks a Latino man, Javier González, in Patchogue. (Newsday, Jan. 29, 2009)
    June 24
    Jeffrey Conroy allegedly attacks a Latino man, Robert Zumba, in Patchogue. (Newsday, Jan. 29, 2009)
    July
    Two Ecuadorian men, Carlos Bonegas and Carlos Chuchuca, are attacked by a group of teenagers around midnight in Patchogue. Bonegas is punched in the lip and Chuchuca kicked in the face. (The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2009)
    July 11
    Mauro López, an Ecuadorian immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for eight years, is attacked in Patchogue by six teens while walking home on a dark street. The teens spray his eyes with a stinging chemical and kick him and hit him with bats, breaking his nose and two teeth. They rip off López’ clothes and rob him. (The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2009)
    July 14
    While walking home in the dark in Patchogue, Carlos Orellana is attacked by about a dozen teenage boys on bikes. They hit him on the back of the head and knock him to the ground while shouting racial slurs. After Lucero’s murder, Conroy and Pacheco are charged in connection with the attack on Orellana. (The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2009)
    Oct. 8
    Conroy and Christopher Overton, another teenager later implicated in the Lucero murder, allegedly attack a Latino man, Joaquín Gutiérrez, in Patchogue. (Newsday, Jan. 29, 2009)
    Oct. 29
    Queens native Francisco Hernández is confronted while shopping in Patchogue by a man saying, “You better get out of here. You don’t belong in this country.” The man grabs Hernández and cuts his neck slightly with a knife. The shop owner calls the police, who reportedly ask him if Hernández is in the country legally. The police report omits the perpetrator’s alleged ethnic slurs and categorizes the crime as criminal mischief, not a bias crime. On Nov. 16, Hernández experiences a second bias incident. After Marcelo Lucero’s murder, Hernández puts up lawn signs at his home urging unity. The next day he finds them defaced with swastikas. The police officer who responds to the incident reportedly asks Hernández if he is in the country legally and tells him that he provokes people with the signs. Hernández alleges that the officer puts the signs in his car and when Hernández asks to photograph them, he is told, “You can’t take pictures — it’ll be all over the news, and we don’t want that with everything that’s going on.” (The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2009)
    Nov. 3
    Jeffrey Conroy, Anthony Hartford, José Pacheco, and Kevin Shea, all later charged in connection with the Lucero murder, allegedly attack a Latino man, Octavio Cordovo, in Patchogue. (Newsday, Jan. 29, 2009)
    Nov. 8
    Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant, is stabbed to death, allegedly by a gang of seven teens called the Caucasian Crew in Patchogue. Jeffrey Conroy, who allegedly did the stabbing, is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime as well as gang assault charges. The other six — Jordan Dasch, Anthony Hartford, Nicholas Hausch, Christopher Overton, Jose Pacheco and Kevin Shea — are charged with gang assault charges. All seven plead not guilty. Hausch and Dasch later say they went “beaner-hopping” earlier in the day; Hausch allegedly aimed a BB gun and hit a Latino man in a driveway in Patchogue. Meanwhile, Dasch, Hartford, and Hausch allegedly attacked Petronila Fuentes Díaz in Patchogue. Also attacked that day, allegedly by some of the same teens, are Angel Luja, Marlon Garcia and Hector Sierra. Sierra tells reporters that he was walking down a street when the teens jumped out of their car and surrounded him.
    Nov. 25
    César A. Perales, president and general counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, asks the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York to investigate bias incidents in Suffolk County; he also requests that the agencies undertake remedial action. The same day, Carlos Bonegas and Luis Bichu, leaving a Chinese restaurant in Patchogue, are attacked by a group of teenagers who they say told them they wanted “to kill a Hispanic.” (The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2009)
    2009
    Aug. 14
    A Hispanic man is beaten and robbed in Patchogue. He tells investigators that three young white males, including a 16-year-old, called him over and engaged him in conversation as he was walking along a street late at night. One teen then hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground, he says, and the three stole cash and other items while making disparaging remarks about his ancestry. Three men are later arrested and charged with third-degree assault as a hate crime. (The Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2009)

    http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?pid=424

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