Debate still simmers over NY hate crime stabbing - CBS News
"(AP) PATCHOGUE, New York — Library assistant Gilda Ramos says she was stunned the first time Hispanics in her English language class told her that many had been victims of attacks and robberies by marauding gangs of teenagers. "Walking ATMs," is how she describes the workers, who often were robbed on Friday or Saturday night after getting paid from jobs such as dishwashing, construction or landscaping.
The revelation came just days before the fatal stabbing of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero in November 2008, only a block or so from the library where Ramos teaches. His attackers later told a judge that targeting Hispanics was something they did for kicks; confident their victims would not call police, because they feared questions about their immigration status, or they assumed their complaints would be disregarded.
Seven high school pals are now in prison; the teen who inflicted the fatal blow is serving 25 years. A new PBS documentary portrays efforts by community leaders to put the killing in the past. However, a letter last week to county leaders from the U.S. Justice Department, which began a probe of police policy after the killing, indicates much still needs to be done.
The 28-page missive to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy from the department's Civil Rights Division lists recommendations for improving hate crime investigations and cites vague policies and procedures that preceded Lucero's killing. Michael Goldberger, chief of the Civil Rights Division in the department's Brooklyn, New York, office, said these were just preliminary recommendations; a final report is pending.
The recommendations included making it easier for people to register complaints about the police by placing notices in libraries and other public places, and better community outreach and improved communication with officers on the beat. The letter cited some confusion over interpreting what a hate crime is.
"Officers need to be informed clearly that youths are capable of committing hate crimes," the letter says. "The tendency to brush off attacks as 'just kids being kids' fails to recognize the severity of criminal conduct in which minors may engage, as seen from the murder of Marcelo Lucero."
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