Running Wild – Hate and Immigration on Long Island
Exclusive Broadcast Premiere Wednesday, November 11 at 11:30 p.m.
On November 8, 2008, a Long Island village was torn apart by seven Patchogue-Medford High School students who allegedly stabbed a man to death because they thought he was Mexican. The victim, Marcelo Lucero, 37, was actually from Gualaceo, Ecuador. He lived in Patchogue and worked at a dry cleaner, earning enough money to help build his mother a house back home. After 15 years in the U.S., Lucero intended to return to Ecuador that December—instead he arrived in a coffin. His murder shed light on a horrifying fact: the teens who committed the deadly hate crime had been hunting Latinos for sport, as often as weekly, for the past year. Last week, one of the accused attackers pled guilty to four felony charges for his role in the fatal assault at a scheduled court conference before State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle.
Running Wild – Hate and Immigration on Long Island explores the aftermath of Lucero’s murder and its effect on the Patchogue-Medford community. WLIW21 presents the exclusive broadcast premiere of the new half-hour documentary on Wednesday, November 11 at 11:30 p.m. Through the eyes of one Patchogue-Medford High School student, Anglica Colon, and her Latino advocate father, Francisco Hernandez, the film captures an entire community turning to chaos in the wake of the murder – fingers pointed in every direction to try to explain what happened. Interviews with senior William Garcia, junior Aneesha Masih and sophomore David Maldonado, illustrate students’ struggle to understand why their classmates and friends committed this atrocity.
Watch a preview:
This Long Island tragedy reflects a nationwide trend: FBI statistics show that hate crimes against Latinos have risen 40 percent from 2003 to 2007, and the Suffolk County Police Department is now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for its failure to crack down on these and other attacks against Latinos. Suffolk County Legislator for District 7 Jack Eddington (D, I) was one person who bore the brunt of the blame. Criticized for proposing “anti-Latino” legislation, Leg. Eddington was called a racist after the murder. His policies and those of other politicians, such as Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, were criticized for stoking hatred against immigrants.
After a contentious community meeting, Leg. Eddington asked Francisco Hernandez to meet with him. Together, they came up with a plan to try to tackle one problem seriously affecting the immigrant community: the fear of being harassed by police when playing soccer on city fields. Running Wild – Hate and Immigration on Long Island follows Leg. Eddington and Hernandez’s efforts to organize a wounded community around a common goal – a county-sponsored soccer tournament – and tracks the difficulties, failures and successes of taking on a national problem one small step at a time.
Filmmakers Tamara Bock and Angel Canales are recent graduates of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, where they produced Running Wild as their master’s project.
Please share your thoughts on the film and this controversial issue by leaving a comment below.
Patchogue Village Gov. used government authority and NY state develipment monies to perpetrate one of the largest hate crimes since Mississipi.
The Village of Patchogue created a fake police department, corrupting many aspects of Government in order to undermine the minority population of Patchogue and drive the immigrants out. The corruption of the Village of Patchogue’s constabulary coincides with its redevelopment. The “shock and awe” of an unlawful illegally armed police force was particularly effective in pushing undesirables out the village’s boundaries. The threat of force coerced residents to give up their rights, which would have been protected under New York State and Suffolk County laws. Residents were faced with fines, arrests, unwarranted inspections, harassment, and threats of assault with illegal firearms.
Proof and admissions the Constables were volatile of Suffolk County law.
On June 23, 2008, Brian Egan, previous the Incorporated Village of Patchogue Special Prosecutor and now the new Incorporated Village of Patchogue Attorney, finally publicly admitted that the practice of carrying firearms was illegal. Attorney Brian Egan declared that the arming of their personnel violated not one, but three laws, and possibly violated the oaths of office of those who were involved. The admission of Mr. Egan goes to the heart of the Village of Patchogue’s ability to illegally maintain an unlawful and illegitimate policing force.
In a further admission of wrongdoing, on June 1, 2008, the Village of Patchogue ceased the practice of their Village Code Enforcement Officers from carrying firearms. I contacted and FOILed the Suffolk County Police Permits division and they refused to allow me access to the Village Contables pistol permits which would have shown the illegal use of Village Weapons.
The Facts: Suffolk County’s Failure to Protect Village of Patchgoue residents.
Suffolk County Officials Knew That The Incorporated Village of Patchogue Was Running An Unlawful Policing Department in The Form of Office of The Village Constables and Did Nothing About It.
Sargent Santa Maria of the Suffolk County Police Department was present at the 1994 enactment of Local Law #9, Chapter 7, of the Village of Patchogue Code, which falsely and deceptively passed a law that allowed the Village of Patchogue policing power. Suffolk County Police Department’s presence condones this illegal act. Furthermore, Suffolk County P.D. worked in conjunction with the Village of Patchogue Constables for years, even though they had knowledge of their illegal power and were duty-bound to shut the organization down and arrest those village employees who were impersonating officers. Suffolk County allowed the Village of Patchogue Constables to enter crime scenes and to piggy back upon their official privileged access. Furthermore, Suffolk P.D. shared information with Village of Patchogue Constables. Upon investigation, evidence may emerge, that the corruption of the Village of Patchogue departments started the corrupting of the Suffolk County P.D..
Suffolk County P.D. may have rewarded its auxiliary police force members with opportunities to participate in the illegal Village of Patchogue police force. Many of the Village’s Constables were ex Suffolk P.D. auxiliary police, which in the late 1990’s Suffolk County’s Sherriff’s office trained. This training, although illegal, further added to the illusion of the Village’s policing power was legitimate. Also there was a sharing of personnel, for example, “fake” Constable, Al Costello– between the Suffolk County D.A.’s office and the Village Constables. This professional collusion caused the Suffolk P.D to turn a blind eye, to a policing entity that Suffolk PD. knew was illegal, dangerous and discriminatory. When complaints were made to Suffolk District attorneys office about Patchogue’s illegal police force, Darryl Burger investigating for the D.A.’s office said “we can’t tell it the constables are legal” or legal ” our staff lacks the resources to make this determination.” Mr. Burger may have made this statement to conceal wrongdoing on the part of the Village of Patchogue police force. Other members of the D.A.s office then made improper determinations in order to for Suffolk County P.D. and the District Attorney’ office to avoid and obscure investigating a criminal matter that Suffolk County Police and the DA’s office were involved in.
http://www.patchoguesredevelopment.wordpress.com
Watched “Running Wild” last night. Very interesting and well done. I had been asked to tape it for a friend of Tamara’s who lives in CA, but it did not work. Do you plan to broadcast it again? If so, please let me know date and time.
Thank you.
I am a middle school librarian and wondered if there was anyway I could get a copy of last nights broadcast “Running Wild” for my 8th grade social studies department?
They would like to show this broadcast to their students…
Thank you,
Lisa Albanese
Please contact the filmmakers at http://runningwild1.wordpress.com/about/ to request a copy of the film.
No rebroadcasts are scheduled at this time, but keep checking back for updates. Thanks for watching!
[...] 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 [...]
[...] Lyn May leads a panel discussion about the events surrounding Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero’s murder by seven Long Island teens, who will stand trial for the hate crime beginning in [...]