NEW YORK—The Hate Crimes Task Force released its recommendations to combat bias-based crimes across New York State on Sunday. The task force, established by Governor David A. Paterson in the beginning of this year, focused on optimizing prevention and response measures for crimes that stem from race, religion, sexual preference, country of origin or native language discrimination.
The task force included representatives from the Crime Victims Board, the Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Division of Human Rights, the Department of Labor, the Department of State, the New York State Police and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. The group was charged with creating a comprehensive strategy for addressing biased-based crimes across New York in response to the highly publicized attacks on Staten Island, Long Island and in New York City in the fall of 2008.
“While these violent attacks are a source of outrage, they are also basis for action. I am proud that we have overcome the sense of powerlessness and moved forward with measures to improve how we raise awareness of, treat and prevent hate crimes in our State,” stated Governor Paterson. “We in New York cannot and will not allow bias and ignorance to infect our communities and deny our citizens the respect that they deserve,” he further noted.
The task force put forth the following recommendations, geared toward education, training, outreach and immigration best practices, for New York State:
• Embrace efforts to develop and implement student curricula and educational staff training regarding hate crimes
• Establish a “hate crimes model policy” for law enforcement officers that will specify a police officer’s duties and responsibilities when encountering hate crimes
• Implement additional hate crimes training for police and prosecutors
• Establish a consistent and unified response to hate crimes across state agencies and community-based organizations
• Provide immigrants with limited English skills easier access to government services, and allow immigrant victims of hate crimes access to state services regardless of their citizenship
• Fortify the process for reporting hate crimes
“I believe Governor Paterson’s initiative breaks new ground by establishing a comprehensive response to hate crimes involving law enforcement, schools, and social service agencies,” noted Commissioner of the Division of Human Rights Galen D. Kirkland. “The recommendations will allow us to expand our coordinated efforts to better identify hate crimes as well as assist and protect victims, their families and communities,” he added.
The Division of Criminal Justice Services data indicates that 596 hate crime incidents were reported in 2008, with approximately two-thirds of attacks directed against individuals and one-third crimes related to property damage and vandalism.
