Thread: Feds probe handling of hate crimes

Feds probe handling of hate crimesInquiry focuses on whether police in Suffolk have properly investigated and prosecuted crimes against Latinos
BY BART JONES | bart.jones@newsday.com
2:06 PM EST, January 12, 2009

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffo ... 5060.story


Three federal agencies have formally opened a joint investigation into the handling by police in Suffolk County of hate crimes against Latinos, the Department of Justice said Monday.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District have opened the inquiry, said Scot Montrey, a spokesman for the Justice Department's civil rights division.

Montrey confirmed that top Department of Justice civil rights officials met in December in New York with LatinoJustice, a Manhattan-based Latino legal advocacy organization.

In late November, the group submitted an 11-page memo to the Justice Department outlining what it described as a systematic failure by police in Suffolk County to properly investigate and prosecute hate crimes against Latinos.

Some of the cases were handled by the Suffolk County Police Department and others were handled by local police agencies.

The group's request for a federal investigation came after the Nov. 8 killing of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue by a group of teenagers in what police labeled a hate crime.

The Suffolk County Police Department and Suffolk Executive Steve Levy's office were formulating responses to news of the inquiry. Previously the police department has said it welcomes any inquiry.

Tim Motz, a spokesman for the department, has said that "as evidenced by the attack on an Ecuadorean immigrant in Brooklyn recently, hate crimes occur everywhere. Our hate crime statistics are essentially the same as those of our neighboring counties and New York City."

The Latino group said "an epidemic of hate crimes against Latinos had erupted in Suffolk County," even though Suffolk police say only one hate crime occurred against Latinos in 2007.

"Latinos in Suffolk County now live in daily fear for their physical well-being, victims of hate crimes at least on a weekly basis," LatinoJustice said.

Some of the cases cited by LatinoJustice were handled by the Suffolk County Police Department, but others were handled by local police departments.

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District, would say only that a joint investigation was being opened into hate crimes against Latinos in Suffolk County. The FBI did not immediately comment on the investigation.

The Latino group said "an epidemic of hate crimes against Latinos had erupted in Suffolk County," even though Suffolk police say only one hate crime occurred against Latinos in 2007

Don't you know that makes it an "epidemic"!

what about the hate crimes against Americans?