More funding is needed for the newly created Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, a group of NYC lawmakers announced yesterday at a press conference on Monday in Williamsburg.
We are grateful to @NYCSpeakerCoJo for coming to Williamsburg to condemn recent anti-Semitic attacks with councilmembers @ChaimDeutsch @MarkLevineNYC @CMMathieuEugene @AndrewCohenNYC @RLEspinal @bradlander @RCornegyJr and CM Alan Maisel pic.twitter.com/pboPxXMKos
— UJO of Williamsburg (@UnitedJewish) May 20, 2019
Mayor Bill de Blasio will allot $336,000 in funding in the city’s $92 billion budget for 2020, but the city council says that the hate crimes prevention office will need $475,000 for its first year and $713,000 annually thereafter, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.
The NYPD’s statistics for 2019‘s first quarter show a 67 percent total increase in reported hate crimes compared to the first quarter in 2018.
City Council Speaker joined The United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn on Monday in a press conference: “If this rash of incidents this month doesn’t alarm New Yorkers, we should look at the overall numbers,” Speaker Johnson said citing an 82 percent increase in anti-semitic hate crimes in NYC during the first four months of 2019 compared with the same time period in 2018.
“New York counted 340 hate crimes against Jewish people in 2018 second only to the state of California, and California is much bigger than the state of New York,” he said.
The Brooklyn Eagle explains:
If fully funded, the Office of Hate Crime Prevention would employ six full time staff members, including a director, an office assistant, two staff analysts and two community associates. It would provide an annual report on hate crimes in the city, and identify areas and communities particularly affected.
Legislation to create the Office of Hate Crime Prevention was passed by the city council last January.
Another way to waste money. How do you prevent hate?