Light in the Darkness

September 23, 2011 8:47 PM

Not in Our Town [autoplay 1hr PBS video]: the story of how the community of Patchogue, NY responded to the murder of Marcelo Lucero

Patchogue's community response is especially notable because, at the time of the murder, it was considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center as having a "Climate of Fear" concerning violence towards latinos and the, at the time, County Executive was known as "The Enabler" because of his incendiary anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Excellent summary from NPR's Tell Me More.

Resources on the web for working together for safe, inclusive communities - Not in our Town: Light in the Darkness

posted by peeedro (9 comments total)

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posted by jangie at 8:54 PM on September 23, 2011

All I can say is I once worked (in Chicago) with a guy from one of these LI beach communities, and he regaled me of a "teenage prank" that involved chainsawing through the pilings that held up the home of the only black family in town. They failed to make it fall over. He said.
posted by dhartung at 10:49 PM on September 23, 2011

I grew up a few towns over and this notion of "going out hunting for "Mexicans" to hunt" is still incredibly foreign. More like "In Soviet Russia So-Called Mexicans Hunt You" kind of thing. My town gets a lot of shit (I'm not sure for what) but in school if people didn't get along it was for some better reason than race.
posted by bleep at 11:06 PM on September 23, 2011

Also I didn't mean to imply that you really get hunted by Mexicans, that's ridiculous. The point is it wouldn't happen. I'm surprised and disgusted to learn that it would happen anywhere near where I grew up.
posted by bleep at 11:07 PM on September 23, 2011

Long Island is practice for hell.
posted by spitbull at 4:22 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Long Island is practice for hell."

Sure, like the Olympics is practice for Field Day.
posted by Eideteker at 5:17 AM on September 24, 2011 [9 favorites]

I was talking to my friend about "bug-out bags" and he was all like "You gotta make sure you got maps for the tri-state region in case you have to flee out of New York City," and I was like "Yeah good point" and he was like "get a map of Long Island in case you have to flee deeper into the island" and I was all like "WOAH dude the point is to escape danger!"
posted by fuq at 5:53 AM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Going out to randomly mug people doesn't really strike me as the kind of thing 'good kids' would do. Why do people always refer to people like this as 'good kids'?
posted by sandraregina at 5:15 PM on September 25, 2011

Patchogue can't necessarily be dismissed as "one of these LI beach communities." The two couples I know in East Patchogue are both queer; this is, in part, because the town is across the bay from Fire Island. Isabella Rosselini has a house in Bellport, one town over. So, the place isn't entirely composed of horrible guido stereotypes.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 10:19 PM on September 25, 2011