S.I. Residents To March After Rash Of Bias Attacks
STATEN ISLAND (CBS) ― Faber Park in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island recently joined the list of locations where police say Latino residents have been assaulted because of their ethnicity.
One victim, a 40-year old Mexican immigrant, told police he was beaten up Friday by a group of five bat-wielding black men who yelled ethnic slurs at him.
The fear is spreading within the Latino community and Alvina Avila says she worries about her husband.
"It's bad for the Mexicans, ya know," Avila tells CBS 2 HD's Jay Dow. "Coming here for the work, not for the fighting."
Police say so far this year there have been six bias attacks against Latino victims. As result, the NYPD has stepped up patrols and the Guardian Angels are set to hit the streets this evening.
The Mexican consulate is so concerned about what if fears is a disturbing trend that it has staffers hitting the streets, reaching out to undocumented immigrants who are too afraid to come forward.
"We have to tell the people to step forward in order to denounce these crimes. We cannot tolerate that," says Mario Cuevas of the Mexican Consulate Counsel of Protection.
Denise Lee says shes not happy to hear a majority of the suspects in these incidents are, according to police, black.
"For years we never had any problems like this," Lee says. "We all lived together here. We didn't have any problems."
Despite the ongoing bias investigations and the increasing number of Latino residents who say they've been attacked, there's a growing sentiment in this Staten Island neighborhood that race is not always the primary motive.
"They do carry cash, so they are an easy target," resident Migdalia Rivera speculates. "They're always an easy target because they have money on them."
Two of the incidents have even been re-classified as robberies, but the exact motive is of little concern to Latino residents who are working to stop the violence. In fact, a neighborhood march is scheduled for Wednesday with the theme "We Are Staten Island."
