Feds to probe “discriminatory policing” on Long Island

There is a climate of fear amongst the Latino population in parts of Long Island as a result of several high-profile bias attacks. It was nearly a year ago that Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero was beaten and killed allegedly by a group of teens. Another Latino was assaulted in August by assailants who yelled racial slurs like calling him "a *** Mexican”.

The aforementioned hate crimes and other denunciations made by the Latino community have caught the attention of federal officials. A Justice Department (DOJ) spokesman said this week that they would investigate the Suffolk County police department for “discriminatory policing” against Latinos. "This is a civil, pattern or practice investigation that will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law by members of the SCPD," said a DOJ statement issued on Monday.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer replied that he would be willing to cooperate with the fed probe yet underlined that cops “respond properly to hate crimes”. Local Latino rights groups welcomed the DOJ inquiry:

“For a long time Latinos in Suffolk County felt that the Suffolk County police have been hostile or indifferent to their well-being and that they have not been treated as white residents have been treated,” said Foster Maer, senior litigation counsel for LatinoJustice P.R.L.D.E.F., an advocacy group based in Manhattan that had been pressing the Justice Department for the inquiry.

“Hopefully,” he added, “we can look forward to a new day on Long Island when Latinos can have full confidence that the police out there are serving them as well as the police are serving others in the community.”

The DOJ investigation comes roughly two months after the Southern Poverty Law Center accused Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy of "verbal immigrant-bashing" since taking office in 2003.

Image- newsday.com (“Jacob Lucero, brother of Marcelo Lucero who police say was attacked by a group of seven that eventually stabbed him to death in Patchogue.”)
Online Sources- newsday.com, The Latin Americanist, New York Times, LoHud.com