Port Richmond's poison: Staten Island must combat bias attacks on Mexicans

Tuesday, August 3rd 2010, 4:00 AM

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The beatings of 10 Mexicans in one Staten Island neighborhood mark a disturbing spike in racial violence in this city of immigrants.

Last year at this time, just two bias crimes against Latinos had been reported in the entire borough. The NYPD is on the case - but community leaders and elected officials must join in with a clear voice to take back the streets.

This has to stop.

In recent months, according to the police, Mexican men walking alone in Port Richmond have repeatedly been set upon by groups of two or more young black men, assaulted and robbed.

In some of the cases, cops believe, the motive was pure bias. Other attacks may have started as robberies of victims seen as easy targets - walking home from restaurant jobs that paid them in cash - which then devolved into slurs.

But whether crime of hatred or crime of opportunity, the results have been equally brutal: skull fractures, a broken jaw, fractured eye socket, brain trauma. And fear is spreading throughout the borough's Mexican community, with understandable concern around the city.

Police have brought in 130 extra cops, including some Mexican-born, and diverted vehicles from counterterrorism duty. It was one of those cars, in fact, that was flagged down Saturday by the latest victim - a 17-year-old high school junior. Yesterday, a 15-year-old was arrested.

New York is a far, far safer place - and far more harmonious, too - than it was back when words like "Crown Heights" could conjure up horror stories. But the virus is still alive, and an especially virulent strain is on the loose in Port Richmond.

It must be defeated. Before someone gets killed.

Port Richmond's poison: Staten Island must combat bias attacks on Mexicans