Lucero On DOJ Agreement: Sense of Responsibility Missing

Before the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously approved an agreement Tuesday with the Department of Justice that requires the Suffolk County Police Department to ensure it polices without bias, Joselo Lucero spoke to remind the legislature what it took to get there.

Joselo Lucero is the brother of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant who was attacked by a group of teenagers and fatally stabbed by one in Patchogue in November 2008. Marcelo Lucero’s death is what prompted the Justice Department to begin an investigation into the SCPD in 2009. The investigation focused on allegations of discriminatory policing allegations, including claims that “SCPD discouraged Latino victims from filing complaints and cooperating with the police and failed to investigate crimes and hate-crime incidents involving Latinos," the Justice Department said in a statement earlier this month.

“But in the community, we didn’t have to wait for the Department of Justice to tell us that something was wrong. We knew that Marcelo was not the first or the only victim of attacks against Latinos,” Joselo Lucero said in a statement sent to Patch. “When he died, other Latinos began telling stories about hate crimes against them since 2004, and we began to realize that the police had not acted to stop those crimes.”

Lucero said that while he supports the agreement, it currently lacks information on similar incidents in which police failed to act.  

“That is what is missing in this report: a sense of responsibility,” Lucero said. “What happened to those investigations? For those cases that were not investigated then, they must be investigated now.”

Lucero asked the legislature to not settle for just approving the agreement, and to make sure that the police live up to it as well as finding a way to give the community the agreement’s accountability.

The Lucero estate had attempted to file a $40 million lawsuit against Suffolk County for a possible connection to Marcelo Lucero’s murder, but it was thrown out in June 2012 by a federal judge on technicality.

The Justice Department has previously given several recommendations to Suffolk County to improve policing in Latino communities in 2011, and several of them have been adopted.

Ryan Bonner contributed to this story.

Joselo Lucero’s full statement to the Suffolk County Legislature is below. What are your thoughts on the agreement and progress made in Patchogue since 2008? Talk about it in the comments below.

Good morning. My name is Joselo Lucero. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

I expect that you will vote today to approve the settlement with the Department of Justice, and I think that makes good sense. In fact, this document is an important. Why? Because it shows that regular, everyday people were able to persuade our national government to look closely at how the Suffolk County Police Department has investigated—or NOT investigated—hate crimes against Latinos and others. So I have NO problem at all with the ideas that are in the 27 pages of the document. But I DO have a problem with what is NOT in the document.

That’s why I am here today, to remind you of how we got to this point, and to ask that you do more than simply approve this settlement. It began when seven young men went out one night in 2008 to beat up anyone who looked Latino. It was a sport that they admitted playing regularly. My brother Marcelo fit that description, and one of those young men stabbed him to death in the streets of Patchogue. His death was the event that later led the Department of Justice to investigate.

But in the community, we didn’t have to wait for the Department of Justice to tell us that something was wrong. We KNEW that Marcelo was NOT the first or the only victim of attacks against Latinos. When he died, other Latinos began telling stories about hate crimes against them since 2004, and we began to realize that the police had not acted to stop those crimes. Less than a year after Marcelo’s death, the.    SPLC  Southern Poverty Law Center released a report called “Climate of Fear,”  That report talks about some of the cases, and I know of many more. I’ve brought copies of it with me for you.

But the Department of Justice does not tell us what happened with those investigations. It tells us what the Suffolk County Police Department should do in the future, but it doesn’t tell us in detail what the police have done or failed to do about hate crimes in the past. That is what is missing in this report: a sense of responsibility. What happened to those investigations? For those cases that were not investigated then, they must be investigated now.

So I am asking you, once you approve of the settlement, not to settle for that alone—but to keep your eye on the way the police live up to it, and to find a way of giving to the community the accountability that it deserves.

Now, I am going to give to the clerk 18 copies of the “Climate of Fear” report, to remind you of the history of this issue. Thank you again for giving me the chance to speak for myself, my brother, and for the victims of hate crimes.