Staten Island Marches Against Hate Crime

Led by one of the victims of an alleged gay bashing at a White Castle, Staten Island residents held a one mile march for an end to the string of bias attacks that have taken place in the borough this year. It was one of three held yesterday. Beating victim Richard Viera said, "You never really imagine it happening to yourself...It’s not a gay issue, a Latino issue—it’s a human issue."

Viera spoke out about his attack, saying the suspects came up to him and his partner as they were eating and used an "inappropriate slur." Then the suspect "punched [his] partner in the head for no reason." Though the rally was organized and largely attended by the LGBT community, members of the borough's Latino community were out denouncing the hate crimes as well. "It's distressing to see the people of Hispanic origin get attacked on the streets," said Angel Love Figureoa from Castleton Corners. “Thank God no one has been killed yet, but we are not going to wait for that point to happen."

Both the NYPD and the Guardian Angels—both of which have been on patrol in the Port Richmond area—handed out reading materials about hate crimes, and State Assemblyman Matthew Titone assured, "These crimes are being committed by a very, very small population of fearful, barbaric monsters." Demonstrators planted a “healing garden" outside the White Castle, and more events speaking out against the crimes are planned for the coming days.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on August 8, 2010 10:30 AM

Comments [rss]

turkishjade

I'm used to seeing people march or protest to try to sway the opinion of local government, but who are they marching for in this case? Are they marching against their own community? The people that are against these hate crimes don't need a march to raise awareness and the people committing these crimes are going to continue to do so until they are caught.

I think the time and energy would be better spent demanding an increased police presence at night, maybe extended bus/train service so less people have to be walking at night, an anonymous 24 hour tip line... stuff that's useful.

I'm also totally with calling these beatings a "hate crime" so that the criminals involved will be looking at max federal jail time versus simple assault. I'd also announce that fact so that maybe the thought of that extra jail time would be a deterrent to any future attackers.

robingee

Marching for tolerance except for Muslims!

ides_of_march

"It’s not a gay issue, a Latino issue—lit’s a human issue."

I agree completely. The seriousness of a crime and level of disgust at it shouldn't be determined by the victim's affiliation with any specially designated victim group. That's putting politics over humanity.

Såkandulæredet

I can see it from the point of view aka 'every crime is a hate crime', but I also can see how crimes based on hate of one group, can be more serious than others. The reason being is that this type of crime amounts to a harassment of a specific group, and makes that group feel ill at ease.

The targeted group could be hispanics, whites, southerners, blacks, jews, gays etc, but the crime is seen differently by the targeted group than a crime involving a specific person for example (an example would be the horrible acid attack the other day). So that's the kind of the logic I see in elevating the seriousness of those types of crimes.

BUT it's important though not to get into a habit of only seeing a hate crime if it applies to a minority groups though, majority groups can be targeted as well... or as in this case it could be minority against minority or minority against majority. It could even be perpetrated by some kind of self-loathing type act, a disavowed jew targeting other jews for example.

ides_of_march

True, but let's face it, these things usually follow a politically correct narrative where certain groups are permanently considered "oppressed" and others the "oppressors." It's disgusting how politicians have divided people and nurtured their grievances just to secure a voting bloc.