How do you plan to address the rise of hate crime incidents in NYC?

Do you consider gender-based violence a hate crime? If so, how will you reduce and prevent it?

Maya Wiley

I have spent my career fighting against hate and for equity. As Counsel to the Mayor, the Ctiy Commission on Human Rights was under my supervision and I fought to have City Hall give it the focus and resources it deserves. As Mayor, no one will have to fight me to prioritize anti-discrimination and anti-hate work.

The fight against hate crimes must be multi-faceted and cross-departmental. CCHR and NYPD are the two agencies that must take the lead in an effective approach against hate. CCHR will lead the enforcement within government agencies and a citywide education campaign against hate. The NYPD will be tasked with protecting New Yorkers across the City, whether that be at synagogues or mosques or in communities at large.

I will bolster CCHRs education and enforcement capacity by moving the Mayor’s Office of Hate Crimes – which has consistently underperformed – into CCHR to ensure that it has the legal weight of the City behind it. The CCHR Office of Hate Crimes will work with Community leaders, the DOE and others to establish and implement citywide educational curricula against anti-semitism, islamophobia, transphobia, anti-asian bias and more.

The NYPD also has a large role to play in the fight against hate. We must put the public back in public safety. This means that City Hall — in consultation with communities, must establish the priorities and procedures for the NYPD. It also means rightsizing the department to ensure it isn’t performing tasks that are not policing and focusing the NYPD on a problems-oriented approach that allows them to focus on areas of greatest need, including protecting New Yorkers against Hate Crimes, which is a policing function. I will also examine the possibility of adding NYPD monitored cameras outside of high-risk locations, while heavily balancing concerns around data privacy and potential abuse of data.

Andrew Yang

As an Asian American I am appalled by the surge in hate crimes stemming from Covid-19 and I have been quite vocal since the beginning of the outbreak about the need to reverse this sentiment. This is just one recent example of the legion of hate crimes diverse New Yorkers experience daily. I unequivocally consider gender-based violence a hate crime. A Yang administration will partner with community organizations and community representatives to eliminate hate crimes from our City.

I have called for the NYPD to focus on hate crimes rather than on criminalized behaviors that don’t pose a public safety risk, such as marijuana use. I will ensure that the NYPD, law enforcement agencies and community leaders collaborate to identify solutions that both protect the community and target drivers of hate crime and violent crime. I have also called on increased accountability of the NYPD to actually solve crimes. The rate of violent crimes solved has dropped and that is problematic. In addition, we need our clergy, schools and community groups to foster more discussion and empathy between neighborhoods so that New Yorkers have a more inclusive mindset and aren’t so quick to blame those who don’t look like them.

Eric Adams

To combat the rise of hate crime incidents we must take a comprehensive approach, starting with grassroots engagement. My office has been undertaking the needed cross-cultural community building, like our Breaking Bread, Building Bonds conversations that have brought hundreds of New Yorkers together from all walks of life. But we also need to put real resources into combating these crimes.

We need to ensure that the NYPD’s recently-formed Asian Hate Crimes Task Force gets the resources it needs. As part of this, the NYPD must prioritize language justice for victims to make it easier to safely report hate crimes. I would also expand my office’s successful Operation Safe Shopper program which provides funding to create local camera coverage to protect soft sites from attacks. Finally, we should ensure every district attorney’s office across the city has a robust Hate Crimes Unit to properly investigate these crimes.

To prevent gender-based violence, young people — especially young men — have to be taught in school and at home about gender equality and human rights. We also need public safety that is not just reactive, and that instead adequately protects women who are targets of violence and survivors of domestic violence, who don’t just need help from police but also need social services, housing and legal help.

We also need to address domestic violence abusers’ trauma so they stop perpetuating violence. My 100+ Steps Forward for NYC plan includes my initiative to reduce domestic violence in our city by addressing this trauma. The NYPD responds to approximately 230,000 domestic incidents each year and 18% of homicides in NYC are due to domestic violence. Many abusers are repeat offenders. We must acknowledge that current programming to change abusers’ behavior is insufficient and doesn’t deal with root causes, which are often traumas experienced by the abuser themselves. To address this, we will launch the “Family Violence Perpetrator Program”, based on cognitive and behavioral therapy, in order to evaluate abusers’ traumas and treat them to prevent further violence.

Shaun Donovan

Yes, gender-based violence is a hate crime. New York City’s diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Harassment and crimes that are motivated by racism or sexuality or gender not only harm individuals and communities, but are also attacks on our city itself. As Mayor, I will work with local law enforcement to ensure that all such crimes are fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and will make sure that the Human Rights Commission and other agencies are dedicated to preventing them from happening in the first place.

While I believe that there are responsibilities of the NYPD that need to be reimagined, the mitigation of hate crimes is not one of them. Policing needs massive reform that includes a new approach to public safety and puts racial justice as a guiding principle of every policy area. First, we must reimagine and look at the entire criminal justice system, not just policing. Public safety should be community-driven and public safety institutions must be accountable and transparent. Second, we must reduce what is asked from police officers so that they can focus on getting guns off our streets and reducing violent crimes. We should be shifting responsibility for mental health crises, schools, homeless outreach, and traffic to other agencies that are better equipped to deal with these types of challenges. Lastly, we must reinvest in the well-being of marginalized communities and critical services that secure the streets for every New Yorker, this includes expanding restorative justice programs and increasing investments in non-profit service providers.

Kathryn Garcia

Hate crimes have been on the rise across the City. No New Yorker should have to fear walking our streets or riding the subways. As Mayor, I would work to streamline the important work carried out by the  City’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. It is also critical that communities are reporting hate crimes, because if we don’t have accurate data, we cannot deploy a proportional response. I will prioritize simplifying the reporting process for these crimes. I will speak out against hate crimes and hateful language, and I will hire leaders that are both representative of the communities and serve and share my unwavering commitment to being an inclusive and equitable city for all New Yorkers. In my administration, there will be a strict and zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes.

Many cases of gender-based violence can certainly be characterized as hate crimes. These crimes can manifest similarly to race-based hate crimes, but they can also appear in more insidious and intimate ways – including through intimate/domestic partner violence and financial abuse – and therefore benefit from different strategies and support systems. A Garcia administration would ensure that those who are vulnerable to gender-based violence or who may be victims of such crimes have access to the benefits,  shelter, counseling, and/or legal support that they need.

Ray McGuire

My commitment to New Yorkers starts with doing something most leaders don’t do enough of, listening. I will listen to each community and encourage respectful, honest and constructive dialogue. As mayor, I’ll establish a 360 Racial Justice Task Force. The taskforce will bring together leaders from every ethnic community, conduct a study to evaluate the increase in racial and ethnic bias, and develop a package of recommendations to end widespread hatred in New York City in every institution. Hate crimes have been underreported and they are not getting the attention they deserve. Speaking out is a critical first step – we need to condemn hate and discrimination every time we see it, and combat the often powerful voices in this country that stoke hate.

We must have aggressive enforcement, which is why I would preserve funding for the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force and expand resources as needed. We also need better data – underreporting means we may not be getting the right support to victims or getting investment in the places where we can make the most difference. My Safety and Justice plan includes shifting resources within the NYPD, in partnership with local precincts, to support a volunteer bystander program. This program will encourage and empower New Yorkers to do their part in ending hate.

Dianne Morales

The rise in religious discrimination and hate crimes in recent years is horrifying and unacceptable. These issues stem from white supremacy which must be denounced explicitly and clearly. I am committed to basing city safety and policy on solidarity rather than giving into white supremacist-driven fear. Under my administration, I will work to bridge the gaps between communities that have been targets of hate. I will work to bring us together to create true safety rather than using more policing, surveillance, or blame to create a false sense of safety. Anti-muslim bias, and every form of bigotry, is designed to keep people from uniting in common cause. My entire campaign is built on the notion that we can have a better city for all people if we work together in our shared self-interest. This is about setting a culture of solidarity.

I will expand funding to work with the NYC Human Rights Commission to fully investigate claims of discrimination in a timely manner. In my role, I would also amplify and support the work of the Human Rights Commission Community Relations Bureau, and more specifically their Bias Response Team. Solidifying these relationships would help launch engaging information campaigns and visibility of the Commission. I would also advocate for an expansion of the Bias Response Team to allow their on the ground work to happen on a regular basis, not just following an incident of discrimination. Additionally, I will encourage a high level of collaboration between the NYC Human Rights Commission and affected communities. I would do this by appointing high-level members to the Commission and its staff that are from impacted communities, and by ensuring that the NYC Human Rights Commission holds resource fairs, events, and town halls in directly impacted communities so that people feel comfortable reaching out to the commission if need be.

I will not increase funding to the NYPD. I am committed to defunding the police by $3 billion—police do not keep us safe. Instead I would invest that money in services that do keep us safe and stable. For example, I would establish a Community First Response Department to be first responders to community public safety concerns related to non-criminal activity such as homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, emotional distress and other behavioral health issues. The department would be staffed by trained, professional first responders, including social workers, medics, and mental health counselors, all of whom would be trained in crisis intervention and de-escalation. They will connect people to healthcare, social services, mental health services and other critical supports. I also believe that a critical part of public safety is ensuring that everyone, regardless of immigration status or language preference, is comfortable interacting with City services. Our communal safety as a city depends on everyone being able to access all available resources.