Newday Video: Vigil for the one year anniversary of Marcelo Lucero's death

Many people gather this Sunday at the site where Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was killed last year in Patchogue to honor his memory. Videojournalist: Mahala Gaylord. Copyright: Newsday

Newsday has been covering this story since last year when Marcelo Lucero was killed. He was murdered by 7 white teenagers. It has hit the community of Patchogue pretty hard and I hope has started to bring about change as to how immigrants are treated here on Long Island. A recent New York Times article quotes a study finding that Long Island is one of the most segregated suburbs.  Simply by visiting different communities through my job, it is easy for me to see the segregation. The study from the New York Times articles states, "74 percent of Long Island's blacks would have to move to be evenly dispersed across the population." I believe it.  I don't know that segregation is the only cause of hate crimes but it has to add to the problem. At least some of the people of Patchogue have come together to start addressing the problem in their community, more foot police have been given patrols and the Latino community is no longer pestered by gangs of racist white teenagers.  But there is still much to be improved upon.

If you want to read more about Marcelo Lucero check this out: A Year Since Lucero Hate Killing