In response to another fatal attack on an Ecuadorian man in New York — another incident being investigated as a hate crime — comes this statement from a half-dozen community groups:

December 9, 2008, New York City. We are shocked and saddened by the vicious hate attack on brothers Jose and Romel Sucuzhanay early Sunday morning in Bushwick, Brooklyn—an attack during which the assailants shouted anti-Latino and anti-gay slurs, and which has taken the life of Jose Sucuzhanay. We express our deepest condolences to the Sucuzhanay family.

Our communities stand together to condemn this hateful violence, and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

In recent years, New York’s African-American and immigrant communities have come together to build closer ties and work toward shared solutions for the challenges we face.

Tragic events such as this serve to bring renewed urgency to the need to continue building those bridges between our communities, and to promote a sense of shared understanding and common purpose in this, the most diverse city in the world.

The attack in Bushwick comes in the wake of the tragic hate killing of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Suffolk County, which followed on the heels of a bias attack against a black Staten Island teenager on election night.

We urge all New Yorkers who are the victims or witnesses of hate incidents, regardless of immigration status, to come forward and report them to the police.

And we reiterate our call for African Americans, immigrants, and all New Yorkers to come together to reject hateful violence, create an environment of safety and respect, and work toward justice and opportunity for all.

Signed:

New York Immigration Coalition
NAACP New York State Conference, Metropolitan Council
Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College
Make the Road New York
Rockland Immigration Coalition
Center for Social Inclusion