WLIW21’s new production explores the Marcelo Lucero hate crime and Long Island race relations
Crossing the Line: The Lucero Murder delves into the issues surrounding Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero’s murder by seven Patchogue-Medford High School students, who will stand trial for the hate crime beginning in March. This new WLIW21 production uses the November 2008 stabbing and the teens’ admission of hunting Latinos for sport as a case study for a thoughtful roundtable discussion about hate crimes, race relations and immigration on Long Island. Filmed in January at Stony Brook University, Crossing the Line: The Lucero Murder features Matthew Crosson, President of the Long Island Association; Francisco Hernandez, a Latino advocate from Patchogue and Hispanic Advisory Rep for Suffolk County, District 7; Robert C. Smith, Professor of Immigration Studies at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs and author of Mexican New York: Transnational Worlds of New Immigrants; Newsday Columnist Joye Brown; and Lyn May, former host of WLIW21’s news and public affairs series Q&A. The one-hour program also includes Nassau County Police Department’s Hate: Crossing the Line video, featuring teens talking to teens about what a hate crime is and the real world ramifications of committing a hate crime, and segments from Running Wild – Hate and Immigration on Long Island, a documentary about the aftermath of Lucero’s murder and its effect on the Patchogue-Medford community, which premiered on WLIW21 in November. The entire program will be available on WLIW21’s video portal – wliw.org/video – after the broadcast.
“Our program isn’t about fueling resentment and sparking controversy. It’s meant to help the community understand why these teens committed this deadly act and educate people on this important issue,” stated Senior Producer Theresa Statz-Smith. “The community has to come together to prevent future hate crimes. Our hope is that Crossing the Line motivates viewers to become an active part of the solution.”
Since the Lucero murder, the U.S. Justice Department has begun investigating Suffolk County hate crimes and police response, and the Southern Poverty Law Center published Climate of Fear: Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County, N.Y. The September 2009 report found that “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,” and called the situation, “a microcosm of a problem facing the entire United States, where FBI statistics suggest a 40% rise in anti-Latino hate crimes between 2003 and 2007, the latest numbers available.”
Crossing the Line: The Lucero Murder tackles tough questions including: what does this terrible event say about Long Island? What about the struggle recent Hispanic immigrants are having finding their place in the third most segregated community in the nation? And what can we do to make sure this does not happen again? During the program Hernandez, who has experienced a hate crime first-hand and is also the father of a Patchogue-Medford High School student, discusses his work with a wide variety of Hispanic organizations and Suffolk County Legislator for District 7 Jack Eddington (D, I) to educate the community and find solutions. Brown recounts her story about being verbally harassed because of the color of her skin, and the differences between how Nassau and Suffolk counties have responded to the influx of immigrants over the last decade. “The institutions that are necessary to change this problem on Long Island exist,” explains Crosson during the program. “And I think, as so often happens unfortunately, it takes a tragedy – even a catastrophe – to cause people to focus on what is happening around them…I think the death of Marcelo Lucero may have been that occasion and it’s causing Long Islanders to realize that we have a problem and collectively we need to solve it.”
A production of WLIW21 for WNET.ORG. Produced in Partnership with SUNY Stony Brook. Executive Producer: John Servidio. Senior Producer: Theresa Statz-Smith. Director: Dini Diskin-Zimmerman.
I have lived in Patchogue for twenty plus years. I as well as most of my neighbors were appalled and quite honestly shocked by the murder of Marcelo Lucero. What I found most appalling was that this was a regular recreational activity for some young people from Patchogue-Medford High School. As you story pointed out most of those arrested did not even live in Patchogue yet this incident has strongly tainted the name of a town that quite frankly doesn’t deserve such recognition. Anyone who lives or shops in the village of patchogue will tell you that hispanics live quite comfortably there. There are many programs through the library geared directly toward the hispanic community, as well as the Churches in the area that largely hold services and masses specifically for spanish speakers. The reputation of being an intolerant community is not justified. However there are most definitely issues when any community is asked to welcome and assimilate a large group of immigrants regardless of their status as documented or undocumented. We are as you know a working class neighborhood, most of the people who live here are just getting by trying to raise their children in a safe community with pretty little single family homes. We are now being asked to be okay with overcrowded housing, groups of men standing on the streets in patchogue who are less than polite when young women walk by, Volleyball games being played by large groups of men where alcohol, food and admission is being charged by the homeowners/renters. I wish that in your report you could have spoken a bit about what the long time homeowners who have not rented out every square inch of their home are dealing with. You touched a little bit on the fact that Pat-Med has had to add additional funding for ESL classes while cutting other programs for the larger community but you didn’t really address how that has affected the community.
Dear WLIW,
Nothing can ever be done to bring back this senseless loss of life. Bigotry and prejudice of this kind should have no place on Long Island or anywhere.
That being said, issues of even greater magnitude for the future of Long Island , seem not to have been touched upon by WLIW. One is the gang warfare in Brentwood and Central Islip that has resulted in the loss of 9 lives this year; the other is the gang warfare and violence between blacks and Latinos in Hempstead and its schools.
Here we have very sensitive issues that your TV people dare not to cover because they don’t fit neatly into “Politically correct” ideology. Here, we have a situation where whites canot be blamed, nor can an easy- albeit valid- cause be established. The crime that is rampant in the Spanish communities, and among black and Spanish groups bodes even worse for the future of Long Island than the Lucero case. Double standards, racial sensitivity, and political correctness prevent WLIW from tackling these issues. Thank you. Harry Katz