Burglars broke into a Spanish-speaking church and vandalized it with anti-Hispanic notes in Patchogue on Tuesday night, Suffolk police said—the day before a national civil rights organization released a report finding that Latino immigrants in Suffolk say they are routinely harassed and taunted.
The suspects in the church break in wrote anti-Hispanic comments, in Spanish, on paper and left the notes on the altar of Iglesia Evangelica Refugio de Salvacion on Railroad Avenue, according to Hate Crimes Unit detectives. Various items, including paper and markers, were strewn throughout the church. A church representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
The investigation came as the Southern Poverty Law Center released on Wednesday a report based in part on interviews with more than 70 Latino immigrants in recent months. It said that many of them reported being beaten with baseball bats.
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It comes days after two teenagers pleaded not guilty in a hate crime attack on an Ecuadorean day laborer on Aug. 14 near the Patchogue train station where immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed and killed in November. The church is also near the same train station.
Seven teenagers have pleaded not guilty to hate crime and other charges in Lucero’s death.
County officials have begun a Hate Crimes Task Force to examine the issue.
Anyone with information on the church break in is asked to contact the Hate Crimes Unit at 631-852-6323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
With Associated Press and Barbara Baez
