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Jack Eddington Reacts to Hate Crime Report

Posted September 3, 2009 by Patrick Young, Esq.

Suffolk Legislator Jack Eddington had perhaps the most unusual reaction to yesterday’s release of a report on hate crimes against Latinos. According to Newsday:
Eddington, who represents Patchogue, said he was saddened by the report and would like to see immigrant rights groups spend time in the community regularly - not just when a bias crime occurs.
Last year Eddington led the charge against immigrants by supporting a raft of anti-immigrant legislation. He famously asked a Latino testifying for his immigration status. He knows where the immigrant groups are, CARECEN’s been in nearby Brentwood for almost 20 years. The Workplace Project is 17 years old. Long Island Immigrant Alliance has been a regular at the Suffolk Legislature for eight years, typically appearing to oppose the sort of demagogic legislation that helped enable the county’s climate of fear. Our groups are not just in Suffolk when a hate crime takes place, we’re there every day.
But our groups are stretched very thin. CARECEN has the equivilent of five full time employees to cover all of Long Island, and we are one of the largest immigrant service groups. Most of our organizations have one paid staff member, if they are lucky enough to have any professional staff at all. None of CARECEN’s meager funds come from Suffolk County, and the same is true of virtually all of our organizations.
Three months before Marcelo Lucero was murdered, I testified at the Suffolk Legislature about the need for the County to follow the model of immigrant integration used in New York City, Westchester, and dozens of counties and cities around the country, of funding services through independent community based organizations. This would not only allow for real services to be offered to Suffolk’s 200,000 immigrants, it would provide the county with regular feedback on the problems the immigrants are facing.
This proposal fell on deaf legislative ears. One of those so afflicted was Jack Eddington.
Jack Eddington faces a serious problem. More of his constituents are facing felony hate crime charges for attacks on immigrants than those of all other Suffolk legislators combined. Hate crimes against Latinos have occurred in his district as recently as last month. Legislator Eddington has a long history of telling his white constituents that immigrants, and those who advocate for them, are to blame for the problems of local and county government. And he has failed over and over again to heed the warnings of immigrants that his rhetoric places their very lives in danger.
Immigrants, and those of us who represent them, insist that the truth be told. We are not just around when a hate crime occurs, but we will also not turn a blind eye to the Latino bleeding on the street, the day laborer spat upon, and the American-born child traumatized by the label “Anchor Baby” attached to her because of her brown skin by a politician courting votes.
But let me not end on a note of resentment. Not all Suffolk politicians are ignorant of the lives led by the immigrants who suffer in their districts. Thomas Barraga, a Republican, has been one of a handful of legislators who have consistently spoken out against the legislative generation of hatred. He said: “No one has the right to go out and harass and perpetuate violence in the community. The report is a wake-up call to take action. I’d love to see the county executive step up to the plate and say that the problems are serious enough that they have to hire a human rights commissioner.”
Let’s hope that the rest of the Legislature is as wide awake as Tom Barraga.

Tags : eddington, hate crimes, marcelo lucero, splc

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