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Lucero Family Spokesperson Tells NYC Cab Drivers To Use Racial Profiling

Posted December 7, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: New York

A prominent Latino advocate is calling for New York City livery cab drivers to employ racial profiling after a driver was shot multiple times in the neck and legs by a Hispanic passenger in South Ozone Park on Friday.

The advocate, Fernando Mateo, is known to some Long Island residents as the spokesperson for the family of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant who was stabbed and killed in a 2008 hate crime. In the city, however, Mateo also serves as the head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, a group that he founded in order to protect drivers from attacks.

The free newspaper amNY quotes the advocate today:

“You know sometimes it’s good that we are racially profiled because the God’s-honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics,” said Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America and the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. “So if you see suspicious activity, you know what, don’t pick the person up,” he said.

Not all cab drivers agreed with Mateo’s conviction that passengers of certain races should be avoided by city cabbies:

Rony Alfred, owner of Everywhere Car Service in Jamaica, said Mateo’s statements come “out of sheer ignorance.”

“Crime is not being created because of black, white, purple,” he said. “It has nothing to do with color.”

Several weeks ago, Mateo addressed the issue of race and discrimination as the Lucero family spokesperson, but with a notably different tone than his most recent comments.

On November 22, the advocate accompanied the Lucero family as they filed a $40 million lawsuit against Suffolk County, the Suffolk County Police Department, and other local agencies for violating the civil rights of their slain family member, arguing that Suffolk authorities discriminated against Hispanic crime complainants.

On the day the lawsuit was filed, Mateo spoke with a reporter from The New York Times:

“It’s very clear that the Police Department knew and understood that the beating, the ‘Mexican beaner’ practice, had been going on for quite some time and they did absolutely nothing to stop it.”

Image courtesy of CarbonNYC via Flickr.

Tags : cab drivers, cabs, fernando mateo, livery cab, marcelo lucero, new york city, new york state federation of taxi drivers, nyc, south ozone park

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