EDITORIAL: After Conroy verdict, work remains in Suffolk

The jury's verdict holds Jeffrey Conroy accountable for killing Marcelo Lucero. If it stands up on appeal, he faces years in prison. But for the people of Suffolk County, it is only the beginning. Overcoming the climate that helped spawn this crime won't happen quickly.

It took the jury a bit more than three days to find Conroy guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime, plus other offenses involving Lucero and three other victims. The roots of the verdict go back before Nov. 8, 2008, the night Conroy and six other teenagers went looking for someone Hispanic to beat up in a game of "beaner-jumping." Conroy brought a knife, and Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant, lost his life in that game.

The prosecutors sought conviction on the charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime, which would have carried a sentence of 25 years to life. Instead, Conroy faces 8 to 25 years for manslaughter. Regardless, two families have been destroyed. The Luceros will spend the rest of their lives grieving over the loss of Marcelo. And Conroy's family faces years of long journeys to visit him in a maximum security facility.

In reaching its verdict, the jury faced a difficult task: calmly finding the facts in a case that aroused so many emotions. That was the only goal the law set before them. But just after prosecutor Megan O'Donnell's powerful closing argument last Tuesday, District Attorney Thomas Spota added another task, telling reporters: "That jury is now the conscience of the Suffolk County community."

It's not that easy. Twelve jurors cannot form the collective conscience of a county. That can only come from the private consciences of the entire community, reflecting deeply on what led to this tragedy and what we must do together to root out the attitudes that made it possible.

Parents should ask themselves whether the language they use at home about immigrants could lead their children to feel that they have permission to be violent.

Religious leaders have a profound obligation to preach not just tolerance, but welcome. We all need to hear that over and over in our churches, synagogues and mosques.

Our schools must leaven social studies curricula with the message of tolerance, along with the realities of immigration: Some come with higher education and skills that earn them a good living here. Many come only with a willingness to work hard and a desperate need to send money to families in their grindingly poor native lands. Lucero had a job at a dry cleaner, and his life was like so many: working hard, frequently calling Ecuador, sending money to his mother, dreaming of better times here.

Some immigrants come legally and some, unfortunately, come illegally. But none should be victims of violence. So our public officials must not worsen the anti-immigrant climate with overheated rhetoric or legislation that purports to ease immigration problems but really doesn't. Only Congress can really solve this, with national immigration reform.

Together, we must make sure our children don't see immigrants as easy targets for cruel games, but as neighbors who have chosen our nation as a refuge from poverty, a chance for a decent future and a safe harbor for fulfilling their grandest dreams. That's what America should be about. hN