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As Hate Crimes Mount in Staten Island, Latino Immigrants Cite Fear of Police

Posted August 16, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: New York

Over the past month, media outlets have flocked to Staten Island, trying to understand the reason for a rash of bias crimes against Latinos. Eleven alleged bias crimes have taken place over the past five months.

Fear of the police has deterred some immigrants on Staten Island from reporting crimes, according to an article published today by the New York City immigration blog Feet in 2 Worlds.

Cristina DC Pastor reports:

Mexican immigrant Mario Billegas, 40, preferred to sit inside the safe space of El Centro de Hospitalidad Community Center on Castleton Avenue and watch TV with fellow construction workers. He was enjoying a free breakfast of black coffee and buttered bread.

“It’s terrible,” he began. “They blame us because we always work.”

Billegas, a father of four was airing his thoughts on bias crimes being committed against Hispanics in the community. His wife is freaked out over the Vasquez case, he said. She worries about their four sons, two of them teens, 14 and 17 years old.

“She wants to pull them out of Richmond High and transfer them,” he said shaking his head. “She says something might happen.”

Billegas said he knew a couple of the other victims. They are ordinary family men like him, “always working, because if we don’t work where will we get the money to support our family?”

“I was mad,” he said when he learned of the most recent assault, “but there’s nothing I can do.”

El Centro – founded five years ago by the Latino Civic Association, Project Hospitality and St. Mary’s of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church — offers free breakfast to low-income families, and extra clothing during the winter. On Thursdays, there’s free food all day, courtesy of local pizzerias, donut and deli stores, and there’s more than enough beans and rice for everyone, said Billegas.

Jose David Carillo, 37, who manages El Centro, said people are often afraid to go to the police to report an incident.

“They don’t say anything, they’re just quiet,” he said.

It’s only when the beatings are serious enough to land them in the hospital that immigrants grudgingly make a police report, Carillo said.