Riverhead takes aim at downtown attacks, revives Anti-Bias Task Force
Rabbi Moss has been working this year to revive anti-bias groups in all 10 Suffolk towns. Most of the groups have gone dormant at some point because it’s difficult to get volunteers to serve on them, he said, though they are often revived later. Only the Southampton and Smithtown task forces have never gone into “sleep mode,” as the rabbi described it.
Chief Hegermiller said the Riverhead task force, of which he is a member, “is very much incident-driven.” He said that his department has responded to the attacks downtown by reaching out to the Hispanic community in recent months through the North Fork Spanish Apostolate and attending mass with Sister Margaret Smyth to inform the community that the department is there to assist them.
Literature distributed principally through the Apostolate did not state clearly that Riverhead police would not question Hispanics on their immigration status, something the chief said he plans to change.
Mr. Walter said last week: “As the Riverhead Police Department, we’re not an immigration enforcement agency, so we’re not asking that question of the Hispanic community. We want the Hispanic community to look at us as though we’re the same police whether you’re white, black, Hispanic, whatever your nationality, race or creed.”
Despite the high profile of the incidents, statistics provided by the Riverhead Police Department show that the overall number of assaults and robberies reported in town is relatively low.
Thirteen incidents — eleven assaults and two robberies — were reported through May of this year. In the first five months of 2013, six assaults and eight robberies were reported, and figures for 2010 show that police wrote up 18 assaults and 14 robberies.
As for the targeting of Hispanics, Rabbi Moss said he asked a teenager who had been arrested for attacking Hispanics in western Suffolk why he did it and he responded, “Because Hispanics are easy marks; they don’t report to the police.”
Mr. Walter said Hispanics shouldn’t worry about reporting crimes.
The supervisor and Chief Hegermiller have responded on the enforcement level in recent months by partnering with Southampton Town Police to permit the police departments to cross jurisdictional lines to enforce violations. State law permits police to cross borders only when dealing with misdemeanors or more serious incidents. The chief said his department may also coordinate with the district attorney’s office if the incidents continue.
The Anti-Bias Task Force can serve to assure Hispanic residents and other targeted populations that the rest of the community supports them, Rabbi Moss said. It also can conduct educational programs in the schools to steer youngsters away from bias, he added.
Councilman John Dunleavy and Louise Wilkinson, both members of Riverhead’s Anti-Bias Task Force, said they plan to hold an event in September to re-establish the group formally.
But Mr. Walter said the town needs help from the Hispanic community.
“Where are the leaders of the Hispanic community?” he asked. “I have not seen them. I know they must exist, but we can’t find them.”
“They’re working,” said Carolyn Peabody, a member of both the Suffolk Human Rights Commission and the Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force.
“One of the things we’ve found in Southold is that it’s very hard to get people to come out because they’re working incredibly hard,” Ms. Peabody said. “And they also experience a sense of vulnerability because they are in a population that is being targeted.”
“They have to come out,” Mr. Walter said. He said he’s left business cards on the doors of Hispanic churches asking their pastors to call him.
But so far, none has.
