Skirting around the meaning of Lucero's murder
November 10, 2008; Patchogue, NY: Handout photo of 37 year old Marcelo Lucero, who was beaten and stabbed to death, police say, as part of a hate crime perpetrated by 7 teenagers in Patchogue. Credit: NEWSDAY/Handout
THE SHOW "Crossing the Line: The Lucero Murder"
WHEN | WHERE Wednesday night at 8 on WLIW/21
REASON TO WATCH Roundtable discussion on the 2008 fatal attack in Patchogue on Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero by seven Patchogue-Medford teens.
THE CONTROVERSY Yes, there is one. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who was originally asked to appear and then was disinvited, declined to give the show statistics about hate crimes in Suffolk. "We said, 'Look, just put another chair there,' " so a Suffolk County police official could explain the numbers and provide context, Levy told Newsday. "It's fine if we're talking about an Ecuadorean immigrant murdered in Patchogue, but now why not mention one in Brooklyn killed two weeks later? It was important for proper balance to be represented here. It's another example of media bias in their portrayal of this subject matter."
Ch. 21 station boss John Servidio says the program as originally conceived was to be political but evolved into "what can all of us do to prevent something like this from happening again?"
WHAT IT'S ABOUT Last month's roundtable at Stony Brook University was - in the words of host Lyn May - designed to find out "what we can learn from this terrible event and what [it says] about Long Island." Panelists were: Newsday columnist Joye Brown; Long Island Association president Matthew Crosson; Francisco Hernandez, Hispanic advisory representative for Suffolk County, District 7; Robert C. Smith, professor of Immigrations Studies at Baruch College. The show features a Nassau County Police Department high school video, "Hate: Crossing the Line," and outtakes of a film produced by Columbia Journalism School students Tamara Bock and Angel Ramon Canales, "Running Wild: Hate and Immigration on Long Island."
There's plenty of talk about the causes of hate crimes, and the consequences - dire for Long Island, Crosson says, if it develops a reputation for such crimes.
MY SAY Levy need not have worried too much. With thoughtful panelists like Brown and Crosson, the 2008 crime gets an airing absent histrionics or accusations. It seems fair, to a fault. But May also began by promising to explore what the Lucero murder said about Long Island. That promise was never fulfilled.
BOTTOM LINE "Crossing the Line" raises lots of questions, with no answers. Some vital ones were left almost untouched: Is there something unique about hate crime in Suffolk (versus, say, Nassau, or Jersey, or Orange County), and if so, why? If not, what have other communities done to battle it, successfully or unsuccessfully?
GRADE C
