This past week an Ecuadorian immigrant named Marcello Lucero was murdered on Long Island. His attackers were seven local high school boys. Does this story line sound familiar? Remember Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, PA? Remember how he was killed? By a group of hateful high school students.
They told police they wanted to beat up someone who looked Hispanic.
That was the motive, police said, that a mob of seven young men had in mind when they attacked a Patchogue man, who ended up being stabbed to death minutes before midnight Saturday, Suffolk police said.
“These individuals told detectives that they were looking to beat someone of Latino heritage,” said Det. Lt Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the homicide squad, adding that the victim, Marcello Lucero, 37, is of Ecuadorian descent.
Fitzpatrick said the seven suspects drove around Patchogue searching for victims and found Lucero and another Ecuadorian man.
Its hard to fully wrap my head around this idea. These boys were searching for a person of Hispanic heritage – ANY person of hispanic heritage. Where does this intense hatred come from? What did Lucero do to merit this extreme violence?
Some people will chalk this up to boys being boys, but as Duke at The Sanctuary said: HATE DOES NOT HAPPEN IN A VACUUM. Marcello Lucero’s murder is a reminder that while immigrants have made their voices heard politically during this past election, there is still much to be done.
Check out the roundup of coverage of Lucero’s murder after the jump. I will be sure to keep you updated with any new developments.