An ethics commission must immediately investigate charges that Suffolk County officials sanitized a hate crimes report.

In Suffolk, a hate crimes task force was charged with examining the sources of racial tension there and the mechanism used to report those crimes.

That mission was prompted by the murder of Marcelo Lucero and other bias-related attacks. In 2008, Lucero was stabbed to death after being surrounded by a group of young thugs that targeted "beaners," as they described.

With the assistance of Suffolk Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, the task force was supposed to present its findings. Instead, the report is mired in controversy.

Legislator DuWayne Gregory, who chairs the task force, says that officials who report to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy left out at least 50 pages from the report. The missing pages supposedly contain sharp criticism of Levy that was made during public hearings.

Levy's administration disputes the allegations, saying that no significant changes were made.

Levy and his administration have come under fire before. In the days following the murder of Lucero, Levy said the attack against Lucero would have been a one-day story elsewhere and compared the public pressure on him to a colonoscopy.

The executive – who is expected to run for re-election this year – played no small role in fanning anti immigrant hostility. He zealously pushed short-sighted, punitive policies against immigrants. The U.S. Department of justice (DOJ) is investigating his county and police department for its handling of hate crimes.

The hate crimes task force wanted to show that Suffolk was serious about investigating hate crimes. Now, Gregory has filed a complaint with the Suffolk County Ethics Commission and the task force is re-starting the process to produce an untainted report.

Residents of Suffolk have suffered enough – to the point of having their lives put in danger and far worse, as in the case of Lucero. They deserve the complete truth – not political tampering.