Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation to stop hate and bias crimes a few days after two men were detained at Penn Station and accused of plotting an attack on a synagogue.
The legislation would establish a statewide campaign for inclusion, tolerance, and diversity and mandate mandatory hate crime prevention training for those found guilty of such offenses.
“Before, this was optional,” Hochul said on Tuesday.
“The operative word now is mandatory. No discretion; this training will occur,” Hochul added.
Community leaders from all over the state will gather for the inaugural Unity Summit as part of the campaign “to affirm our stand against hate,” according to Hochul.
Hochul continued, “How you can do things differently” is something New York can educate the rest of the country.
Following a weekend that saw the arrest of the two people who intended to “shoot up a synagogue” and the shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, Colo., which left five people dead and 25 injured, Hochul made his declaration.
Hochul announced Sunday that state police would step up their monitoring and security measures at synagogues and other susceptible locations.
Along with providing $46 million in federal funds for 240 organizations around the state at risk of hate crimes, the state made $50 million available for bolstering security measures earlier this month.
Hochul cited an Anti-Defamation League report that indicated the group recorded 2,717 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2017, a 34% increase from the year before and the most significant number since it started keeping track in 1979.
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