MetaChat - WTF is going on on Long Island?

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10 November 2008

WTF is going on on Long Island? →[More:] There was a heinous murder committed in Patchogue on Saturday. Apparently motivated by hatred for Hispanics. Along with the obvious disgust I feel at someone being murdered, especially for no other reason than their ethnicity, there's also some bafflement. In this picture from the Gothamist (and in televised news reports) one of the perpetrators appears to be a black man and according to the article in the first link one of the attackers names is 'Jose Pacheco.'. WTF, people?

(also, I mean no insult to LI, I have family members who lived there and I've known plenty of great people from there. This is just too weird and depressing is all)

post by: jonmc at: 12:33 | 10 comments

Perhaps it has something to do specifically with the immigrant construction day-laborer pick-up spots, and the rental houses that supposedly have 40 people in them. That issue was kind of heated not too long ago.

posted by StickyCarpet 10 November | 13:55

Sticky: I know about the underlying issues that bring out the worst in people, but I'm still kind of stunned that a black guy and another Latin guy joined in. But then again, I suppose nonwhites are as capable of being bigoted morons as anyone.

posted by jonmc 10 November | 14:03

The black guy and Jose could be the same dude.

posted by danostuporstar 10 November | 14:13

jon, you live on Long Island.

And we've known LI was fucked up since Amityville, Buttafuoco, and so on.

posted by Eideteker 10 November | 15:50

Eide, 2/5ths of all New York City residents live on Long Island... Exactly what are you trying to say?

posted by TrishaLynn 10 November | 16:05

Er, I mean 2 out of the 5 boroughs... don't make me do math and statistical analysis!

posted by TrishaLynn 10 November | 16:06

Doesn't Long Island refer to everything that is not Brooklyn or Queens?

posted by danf 10 November | 16:28

Doesn't Long Island refer to everything that is not Brooklyn or Queens?

Yes, it does.

I suppose if you wanted to get technical about it, everything from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to Montauk is a part of the geographical entity of Long Island.

But in everyday speech, a reference to "Long Island" will be understood to mean everything east of the Queens-Nassau border.

posted by jason's_planet 10 November | 17:09

And we've known LI was fucked up since Amityville, Buttafuoco, and so on.

A college friend of mine sold Amy the gun she used to shoot Mary Jo, actually.

posted by jonmc 10 November | 17:25

I had a co-worker from Howard Beach once. He told me that he and some friends once tried to saw through the pilings that supported a black family's house. To him, it was a casual story about a misspent youth.

Also, isn't it well-known that there isn't a lot of solidarity across the entire Latino spectrum? Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, especially, seem to hate on each other a lot.

A Venezuelan-American is probably comparatively European compared to many Mexican immigrants.

posted by stilicho 11 November | 04:14

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