Hochul announces $51.6M to harden potental targets of hate crimes

With hate or bias crimes in New York up nearly 20% last year — and close to twice as high across Long Island — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced $51.6 million in funding for safety and security enhancements statewide at potential targets of violence over ideology and beliefs.

The money will go to nearly 500 community centers, cultural museums and nonprofits, including roughly $8.6 million for about 70 Long Island organizations. The total amount is the highest awarded through the state's Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes grant program since its inception in 2017, Hochul said at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan, where she also signed legislation mandating that colleges enhance their reporting of hate crimes on campus.

Hate crimes against Jews, Hochul said, have more than doubled in the past year, with an antisemitic incident occurring somewhere across the state, on average, every 33 hours.

"Barely a day goes by when someone else is not subjected to this — the fear, the anxiety, the worry about your children, your elderly parents walking the streets," Hochul said. "Last year, the statewide number of antisemitic acts hit numbers we've not seen in decades. And I'm not proud to say it was the highest number in the nation. This is New York. We're better than that."

State officials said the organizations awarded grant money will be notified in the coming weeks.

They declined to identify the groups on Long Island receiving funding but a high percentage of those dollars — as in previous years — are expected to go toward hardening security at Nassau and Suffolk Jewish schools, community centers and cultural organizations.

The funds can be used for exterior or interior security improvements, including barriers, alarms, panic buttons, fencing, shatter-resistant glass, public address systems and for the first time, measures to strengthen cybersecurity.

Bias incidents on the rise in Nassau

Data from the State Division of Criminal Justice Services shows that reported hate crimes are on the rise in Nassau County.

In 2022, there were 61 such crimes in Nassau, reported predominantly to the county police department, compared to 28 one-year earlier, a nearly 118% increase and the most in at least half a decade, according to state data. 

A closer look shows the increase was fueled largely by crimes against Jews — from 12 in 2021 to 31 in 2022 — and anti-Asian bias, which leapt from zero crimes in 2021 to seven in 2022. Hate crimes against Hispanics, Blacks, Muslims and members of the LGBQT community all showed modest increases in Nassau as well last year, the data shows.

Scott Richman, regional director of the Anti Defamation League of New York and New Jersey, said while "alarming," the data comes as no surprise. Richman pointed to a recent audit by the group showing "that hate is at historic levels in our state and across the nation. This should be a call to action for all people of good will to speak out and work together to counter antisemitism and all forms of hate."

Long Island was home to one of the most widely reported examples in 2022 — a rash of antisemitic flyers tossed onto driveways and lawns in Long Beach, Oceanside and Rockville Centre echoing smears Adolf Hitler expressly cited in the run-up to the Holocaust.

Hate crimes reported in Suffolk County barely budged, from 28 in 2021 to 27 last year, state figures show. Crimes targeting Jews in Suffolk dropped from seven in 2021 to five in 2022, according to the data.

Across all of Long Island, including areas patrolled by Parks Police, hate crimes jumped nearly 40% in the past year, from 66 to 92, the data shows. That spike far exceeds the 20% increase in hate crimes reported statewide last year — from 790 to 947, officials said.

Rabbi Anchelle Perl of the Chabad of Mineola said the "very serious issue of growing hate in our society" can be linked to parents who have evaded "bringing up their children with clear moral standards of respect and appreciation of diversity and left it to the schoolteachers. And by and large schoolteachers' hands are tied."

Increased reporting on college campuses

The legislation signed by Hochul on Tuesday requires colleges to review their policies for assisting victims of hate crimes, enhance their own investigatory tools and inform incoming students about hate crime prevention measures. Hate crime statistics, which already must be reported to federal agencies and are often disclosed through dense annual reports, must now be posted clearly on the college's website, the bill states.

Many Long Island colleges, SUNY Farmingdale among them, have already instituted strong policies to prevent and report hate crimes on campus.

"With that said," added Farmingdale spokesman Matthew Colson of the legislation, "we'll study its details carefully and incorporate all additional expectations for educating our students, parents and employees…"

Nassau Community College spokeswoman Lindsey Angioletti said hate crimes data is reported through campuswide emails, on its website, at orientation and through educational workshops.

"With the new legislation, the college will update its reporting policies and procedures," she said.

At Hofstra University, a spokeswoman said, members of the community can confidentially report bias incidents online while training and education is provided about hate crime prevention measures and reporting tools.

With Arielle Martinez

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.