Suffolk lawmakers debate hate-crimes task force bill

Without a serious study into Suffolk's hate crimes, Legis. DuWayne Gregory said yesterday, county residents will begin taking extra measures to protect themselves.

"People are going to start modifying their behavior," Gregory (D-Amityville) told the Public Safety Committee. "They're going to start carrying guns, knives and sticks."

Gregory, whose bill to create a hate-crimes task force advanced to the full legislature for a Tuesday vote, told of being a hate-crime victim as a child and said it changed the way he acted on his own block.

Gregory, who is black, said he was 10 years old and walking to his house on Miller Avenue in Central Islip when a white neighbor used a racial slur to describe him and ordered his German shepherd to bite him. "I froze," Gregory said, "then the dog bit me on the leg."

He didn't tell his parents, let alone report it to police. Instead, Gregory said, carried a large stick to ward off a potential attack, walked with friends or rode his bicycle.

"You modify your behavior so you don't become a victim again," he said.

Legis. Jack Eddington (WF-Medford), who is white, said he was also a hate crime victim as a boy growing up in the Queensbridge housing project in Long Island City, Queens. He recalled being shot at and suffering beatings from groups of black and Hispanic youths that sent him to a hospital. Legis. Kate Browning (WF-Shirley) said that, as a Catholic growing up in Protestant Northern Ireland, she was "always a victim" of taunts and slurs.

Gregory's comments, along with Eddington's and Browning's, came during a spirited committee debate over his bill to create and appoint a 13-member task force to study the county's hate crimes. The body's members would be appointed by Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook), County Executive Steve Levy, District Attorney Thomas Spota, the Suffolk Police Department and heads of other county boards.

The proposed bill comes as the Justice Department's civil rights unit and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York are investigating allegations of bias-motivated crimes against Latinos in Suffolk County.

The proposed task force would have a $5,000 budget, be required to hold at least four public hearings and submit a written report to legislators within a year. Levy "has no problem with" the task force, said his spokesman, Dan Aug.

During the meeting, Minority Leader Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham) and Legis. Thomas Barraga (R-West Islip) spoke out against the task force, but agreed to allow it to proceed to the full legislature for a vote.

Losquadro disputed the premise of the task force, arguing there is no large-scale hate-crime problem in the county.

"We have people within our society who are a problem, but I refuse to accept that our society is the problem," Losquadro said. "I do not want to see this become an indictment upon our society. I think our police department has done a fantastic job."