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Survey: Hate crimes worry Long Islanders

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY | zachary.dowdy@newsday.com

February 28, 2009

Hate crimes worry Long Islanders, according to a recent poll that said 89 percent of its respondents are either very or somewhat concerned about hate crimes on Long Island.

The survey of 400 residents - 200 each in Nassau and Suffolk - conducted by researchers at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., also found that Long Islanders are highly aware of recent hate crimes here.

The survey comes in the wake of a torrent of media coverage of the Nov. 8 death of Marcelo Lucero, the Patchogue man and Ecuadorean immigrant who Suffolk authorities say was killed by a group of teenagers who routinely targeted Hispanic men for harassment and random beatings.

The Sacred Heart University/WSHU Public Radio Poll, which was conducted this month, also found 7 percent said they had been a victim of a hate crime. The margin of error for the random phone survey was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Josh Klein, a Sacred Heart University political scientist who had no role in the study, said the victimization figures are alarming. A nearly 7 percent victimization rate is high for a democracy, he said.

"People underestimate the continuing problems of racism," he said. "If we want to comfort ourselves that only a handful are indicating a problem we have a right to do that, but it's not accurate."

Suffolk and Nassau county police department officials who examine bias crimes could not be reached to comment.

But Suffolk Minority Affairs director Mel Guadalupe said, "The fact that the survey shows about the same number of respondents in Nassau and Suffolk report having been a victim of a hate crime shows that all of us on Long Island must unite to promote a more tolerant society."