They called it “beaner jumping”

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (AP) — The flowers have wilted and the candles are burned out at a makeshift memorial where an immigrant from Ecuador was stabbed to death in what police say was a hate crime carried out by marauding teenagers.

But the outrage over the killing has only intensified in the two weeks since Marcelo Lucero was attacked, reverberating around the hemisphere and resurrecting the debate over illegal immigration at a time when communities nationwide have seen an influx of undocumented workers.
Marcelo Lucero’s death Nov. 8 has drawn the attention of officials in Ecuador and forced the Suffolk County executive, the co-founder of a national group against illegal immigration, to apologize for belittling the importance of the case.
Seven Patchogue-Medford High School students have been charged, one of them with murder. And the case has once again highlighted the extraordinary amount of tension between white Long Island residents and the booming Hispanic population.
At a funeral last week in the victim’s hometown in Ecuador, the Rev. Jorge Moreno called Lucero’s death “a product of a feeling of xenophobia that makes some people believe they are worth more than others.” Ecuador’s ambassador to the United States, Luis Gallegos, described it as a lynching.
A grand jury indictment and comments by police and prosecutors paint a picture of a group of bored high school students who regularly found enjoyment in what they called “beaner-jumping,” a derogatory euphemism for attacking Hispanics.
“To them, it was a sport,” Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

Beaner Jumping Still Happening

Let's jump some Beaners