New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to dramatically expand the list of potential hate crimes in New York is the latest in what’s become a long line of crime-related issues to divide Democrats in Albany.
The Democratic governor is throwing her support behind legislation that would allow district attorneys to prosecute an additional 31 charges as hate crimes. It’s a legal determination that pushes misdemeanors and low-level felonies up to higher-level charges that carry stiffer sentences — but only if a prosecutor can prove a person was motivated by a bias against the victim’s race, religion or gender, among other attributes.
The bill would apply to everything “from gang assaults to graffiti,” Hochul noted last month. Her push comes in response to a bump in reported hate crimes in New York City following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as well as a sharp statewide increase over the past several years. It comes at the request of district attorneys like Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, who say the current list of potential hate crimes is too restrictive.