Cy Vance Calls for Hate Crimes Unit in Manhattan District Attorney Office

CONTACT:
Erin Duggan
Cy Vance for Manhattan DA
(646) 248-4370
eduggan@cyvanceforda.com [1]

Manhattan District Attorney candidate Cy Vance today called for the establishment of a Hate Crimes Unit in the District Attorney’s office to ensure the fastest and most comprehensive prosecution of hate and bias crimes. Since 2000, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force has investigated nearly 2,000 reports of hate crimes perpetrated against New Yorkers for their perceived race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. As District Attorney, Vance would host an annual Hate Crimes Summit to give District Attorneys, police and community organizations a forum to review updated crime statistics, trends, legal precedents and strategies to guide prevention and prosecution of these bias-motivated crimes.

“Hate crimes do not just target individuals, they victimize entire communities and must be condemned, prosecuted and prevented,” said Vance. “The creation of a dedicated Hate Crimes Unit would bring together the resources and bias crimes experts needed to quickly identify and prosecute these offenses. Working closely with the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force and the DA’s Community Affairs Office, I would increase outreach to schools and organizations to raise awareness of these offenses to encourage reporting and increase prevention. These crimes affect the most vulnerable segments of our society and cannot be tolerated in a just and fair city.”

Sharon Stapel, Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, said: “The New York City Anti-Violence Project believes a dedicated hate crimes unit in the District Attorney’s office is critical to the prevention of future hate violence. In the 2008 Hate Violence Report recently released by the National Coalition of Anti Violence Programs [www.avp.org [2] and www.ncavp.org [3]], we documented 29 murders motivated by anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender bias. Five of these murders were in New York State. At the heart of the Hate Violence Report recommendations we call for education and prevention initiatives, such as this one, to end bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“A dedicated hate crimes unit focused on prevention and education is paramount to the needs of our communities,” Stapel continued. “As the severity of violent crimes, including murder, sexual assault and use of weapons in the commission of a hate crime, is increasing in New York and nationally, it is time we stopped focusing solely on punishment and turn our attention to education and prevention. This is where the most potent and far reaching solution to hate violence lies.”

Hate crimes have received increased attention in the last decade, particularly since New York State passed the Hate Crimes Act of 2000. The legislation increased the penalties for those convicted of a bias-motivated crime. Despite the additional focus, hundreds of hate crimes are reported across the state each year.

In 2008 568 hate crimes were reported in New York State, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. More than 250 of those incidents were reported in New York City. The recent reports include an openly-gay 50-year-old man who was severely beaten in the West Village, in an attack believed to be motivated because of the victim’s sexual orientation. In December, two Ecuadorian brothers were beaten, one fatally, during an attack in Brooklyn in which the attackers shouted anti-Latino and anti-gay statements. And on Election Night last year, a 17-year-old was attacked by four white teenagers who allegedly beat the victim while shouting “Obama.”

FBI Hate Crime Statistics report for 2007, the latest available, showed that hate crimes has increased by nearly 8 percent nationwide from 2005, with more than 9,006 offences in 2007. Intimidation, assault and destruction of property were the most common crimes, and more than half of the crimes were racially motivated.

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called for tougher U.S. hate crimes laws to stop “violence masquerading as political activism.”

“We must prosecute these criminal acts to the fullest extent of the law,” said Vance. “But that is not enough. We must bring together the experts on Hate Crimes for an annual summit to find the most effective means of preventing and prosecuting these crimes. These summits will involve all aspects of law enforcement, community groups and others who have tracked and monitored these crimes.”