Vows to set up a legal defense fund to help immigrants.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, on Sunday, announced that a special police unit will be formed to fight an upsurge in hate crimes following the presidential elections.
Cuomo made the announcement while addressing a gathering at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. According to a report by CNN, Cuomo called for efforts to end the politics of hatred.
“I come to you this morning with a heavy heart. The ugly political discourse of the election did not end on Election Day, in many ways it has gotten worse, into a social crisis that now challenges our identity as a state and as a nation and our people,” Cuomo said. “It goes beyond politics: it questions our American character – who we are and what we believe,” he added.
Cuomo cited several incidents in recent times to show the pathetic condition through which the nation is passing. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported 437 incidents of intimidation targeting blacks and people of color, as well as Muslims, immigrants, women and members of the LGBT community, said the governor.
Though Cuomo didn’t mention President-elect Donald Trump, he spoke about anger showed by people during election campaigns. Saying anger comes with good cause, he said that income inequality has gotten worse and the middle class has shrunk into poverty.
The reports of several agencies show spike in hate crimes after the presidential election. The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported more than 700 incidents of a hate crime following the election. A toll-free hotline launched by the governor to connect New Yorkers with the state Division of Human Rights to report incidents of discrimination has received more than 400 calls since Friday, according to Cuomo’s office.
Apart from forming a special police unit to check hate crimes, Cuomo promised to set up a legal defense fund to help immigrants who face prosecution under Donald Trump. The fund will be used “to provide immigrants who can’t afford their own defense the legal assistance they need … because in New York, we believe in justice for all,” Cuomo said. It will be formed as a public-private partnership.
“If there is a move to deport immigrants then I say start with me. I am a son of immigrants. Son of Mario Cuomo, who is the son of Andrea Cuomo, a poor Italian immigrant who came to this country without a job, without money, or resources and he was here only for the promise of America,” he added.
Meanwhile, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill told a New York radio station on Sunday that the statistics show an alarming trend in hate crimes since the election.
“We’ve had an uptick in hate crimes, actually a little bit more than an uptick. We’re up 31% from last year. We had at this time last year 250, this year we have 328, specifically against the Muslim population in New York City — we went up from 12 to 25, and anti-Semitic is up, too, by 9% from 102 to 111,” O’Neill said.
An FBI report suggests that the crimes against Muslims have increased in 2015 compared to the previous year. In 2015, 257 hate crimes targeting Muslims were reported compared to 154 in 2014. This is the highest number of anti-Muslim hate crimes reported after 2001 when the country witnessed 481 such incidents following the attack on world trade center.
Religion-based hate crimes went up to 1224, showing a 23 percent increment. But, most of the crimes were against the Jewish people. The crimes against the Jews rose by nine percent.
With a seven percent increase, the number of hate crimes rose from 5,479 in 2014 to 5,850 last year. The report said 18 victims were murdered and 13 raped. About 41 percent of hate crimes involved threatening behavior, while 60 percent of victims were assaulted.
Anti-White bias has resulted in about 18 percent crimes while 9 percent were anti-Hispanic or Latino crimes. About 3 percent of crimes were against either anti-Asian or anti-American Indian, while 1 percent involved anti-Arab crimes.
While 48 percent of the violators were white only 24 percent were black. About 18 percent of the crimes reported were based on the sexual orientation of victims. Of the 1,263 victims, 62 percent of incidents involved anti-gay bias against men.