But perhaps no crime shocked Long Island more than the spree that involved 100 people and occurred in two places -- the Sea Crest Diner in Old Westbury and a house party in Plainview -- in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 29, 1982.
Five men, all from Brooklyn, invaded the Plainview party, forced 20 persons to take off their clothes, robbed them and sexually abused and raped women. Then they went to the diner, where they held about 75 people at gunpoint and ordered several men and women to have sex. One woman was raped in front of several diner patrons, people were pistol-whipped, blackjacked, shot in the buttocks; they were all made to strip and throw their valuables on the floor. Witnesses got a description of the car the men were in, and all five ultimately were arrested. All -- including two later convicted of a 1981 murder -- remain in prison. It was called by one judge "the most violent and obscene crime spree in the history of Nassau County."
Was race a factor in this crime?
HEE HEE HEE
HA HA HA
NYUK NYUK
Stop - you're killing me ...
Well, except for the fact that all the perpetrators were black and from an essentially all-black neighborhood and they drove to an essantially all-white neighborhood and all of the victims at the party and restaurant were white (mostly ethnic Italian) who the perps racially and ethnically insulted as they shot, raped, and beat them - no, aside from that, race wasn't a factor.