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Voices From The Marcelo Lucero Documentary

Posted January 12, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.

In December, public radio broadcast nationally an hour-long documentary about the Marcelo Lucero murder. You can listen to it free here.

Here are some of the voices in the documentary:

Joselo Lucero (Marcelo’s brother) on the fear of anti-immigrant mobs of white teens in the months before the Nov. 8, 2008 killing of Marcelo Lucero:

“Back in that time, things were really bad. That is why my brother was really insecure. Back in that time you could get beat up, [they would] humiliate you.”

Joselo Lucero on his brother’s death:

“It’s really hard to believe it could happen to him. He was an big guy. He lifted weights. But it was seven on two. It breaks my heart.”

Rev. Allen Ramirez on the immigrant community in Suffolk since the attacks intensified in 2007:

“This community lives in fear. They must live live in the shadows of society.”

Patrick Young on the attackers:

“These were very young men, who were not outcasts in their community. They were part of the mainstream at Patchogue Medford High School, and unfortuantely, their actions were not seen as outside the mainstream by their school mates.”

A male senior at Patchogue Medford on the killing of Ecuadoran immigrant Marcelo Lucero:

“They don’t belong here anyway, they’re all illegal. I don’t think they should be here. You beat ‘em up and you get charged with a hate crime? Bullshit. I got my own friend that’s going to court for beating up another Mexican. He’ll get out of it because if you’re illegal, you don’t belong here.”

A freshman girl at the high school said:

“I’m not really friends with any Mexicans, but I feel bad about my friends killing him. Our entire school is racist. None of us like Mexicans. My entire school doesn’t like them. We make fun of them and we do whatever we can.”

Nadia Marin of the Workplace Project on the effect of repeated efforts by Suffolk elected officials to target immigrants with legislation:

“Each time [anti-immigrant] legislation is brought up, [immigrants are] getting beaten up on the street, people have beer bottles thrown at them, rocks thrown at them.”

Steve Levy on his critics:

“They’re not immigration advocates. They’re illegal immigration advocates.

Tags : hate crimes, hate watch, marcelo lucero

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