NY Gov. Hochul signs campus hate crime prevention bill to ‘defeat the haters’

Gov. Hochul on Tuesday urged New Yorkers to beat back bias and “defeat the haters,” signing legislation to bolster hate crime prevention policies at colleges.

The state also detailed awards of almost $52 million in grant money to strengthen security for at-risk New York nonprofits.

The measures marked the latest efforts by state officials to combat antisemitism, homophobia and racism that have bubbled to the surface with discomfiting frequency as New York emerges from the COVID pandemic.

The commitments from Hochul arrived with reports of hate crimes in New York City down about 33% year-over-year through early July, according to Police Department data. But they also came after the state logged a 20% increase in hate crimes last year.

At a ceremonial bill signing in a dimly lit Museum of Jewish Heritage auditorium, Hochul said that a hate crime take places about every 33 hours in New York.

“It breaks my heart,” Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat who has made fighting discrimination a central focus of her administration, said at the lower Manhattan museum.

“This is New York — we’re better than that,” Hochul said. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

Under the legislation signed into law on Tuesday, colleges that receive state funding must develop plans to probe on-campus hate crimes, publish campus crime statistics on their websites and teach new students about hate crime prevention procedures.

Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the bill, said the legislation was the product of feedback from college students and professors last summer.

“Discrimination and antisemitism has begun to seep into our institutions of higher education, leaving students feeling unsafe while they are in school,” Rosenthal said at the bill signing event.

“Our colleges need to take discrimination more seriously, and need to be proactive in combating hate,” he said.

Last November, Hochul signed legislation establishing a statewide inclusion campaign and requiring people convicted of hate crimes to undergo mandatory hate crime prevention training.

At the time, Hochul said the state was launching regional community listening sessions and disbursing $50 million in nonprofit grants through its so-called Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes Grant Program.

That month, cops in Penn Station busted two 22-year-olds accused of plotting an attack on an unspecified synagogue. The men were carrying an illegal firearm and a long knife, according to authorities.

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In Midtown in February, neo-Nazis held an antisemitic demonstration outside the first Broadway preview of a revival of “Parade,” a musical about an American Jew who was wrongfully convicted of murder and lynched a century ago.

The $52 million investment outlined Tuesday came through the Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes Program. Overall, the program has disbursed $135 million since its launch in 2017, Hochul’s office said.

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services runs the program. The grant funding is intended for community groups that are at risk of attacks due to their mission or beliefs.

The program issued new awards to 497 organizations, which were being alerted to the fresh funding streams on Tuesday, according to the governor’s office.

The state’s 2024 budget secured an additional $25 million for the program, with applications set to open in December, Hochul’s office said.

The governor said she wants every college student in New York to feel secure on campus.

“And every New Yorker walking into a grocery store or a house of worship or a community center should just feel as safe as well,” Hochul said. “That is my vision for New York.”