In July of this year, Luis Ramirez was beaten to death by a gang in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. In August, a Staten Island man rammed his vehicle into the storefronts of three Latino merchants. Last month, a gang hunted down and stabbed Marcelo Lucero to death in Patchogue, Long Island.
This list of hate attacks continues to grow with the brutal beating of yet another Latino immigrant.
Jose Sucuzhanay, a Bushwick, New York business owner, was with his brother Romel on Sunday when he was beaten by a group of men using a bat. He was declared brain dead yesterday.
Police reported that witnesses heard the attackers shout anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at the brothers. Apparently they mistook Jose and Romel for being gay. According to a witness who was parking his car nearby, a maroon SUV pulled up alongside the brothers and a man inside yelled, “Check out those f—-s over there.” The surviving brother told police he didn’t hear that remark, but he heard one of them yell, “F–k you, Spanish people.”
This is only one of incident in a disturbing trend of increased hate crimes against Latinos. FBI reports indicate that the number of hate crimes against Hispanics has increased by a shocking 40 percent since 2003. More than 62 percent of crimes motivated by bias against ethnicity or national origin are committed against Hispanics. However, it is believed that many incidents go unreported, particularly those aimed at undocumented immigrants.
The victim’s family seems to believe that race was a factor in the crime. Speaking outside the hospital, Diego Sucuzhanay said his brother had been singled out for his skin color and sounded a warning to other immigrants. “Today my brother is the victim, but tomorrow it could be your brother, your mother, your father,” Mr. Sucuzhanay said.
Jose Sucuzhanay was 31 years old and the father of two children.
According to The New York Times, the police labeled the incident as a as, “a possible bias attack.” However, based on the testimonies of witnesses who heard the men yelling racial and anti-gay slurs it seems pretty clear that this is a hate crime and authorities should investigate it as such. Latinos need to continue to draw attention to the increase in hate crimes against our community and demand that authorities take the proper action.
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