by Mike Schnitzel
The state Assembly announced on Monday that it had passed a bill, co-authored by Republican Assemblyman Thomas Alfano of North Valley Stream and Brooklyn Assemblyman William Colton, which increases the penalty for committing a hate crime. Alfano said he was moved to action after the garage door of a North Valley Stream home was spray-painted with racially offensive symbols and remarks, including swastikas and ³KKK.²
"This bill seeks to protect people regardless of their race, color, national origin, gender or religion," said Alfano, who called the incident an outrage. "Hate messages have no place in our neighborhoods."
The Alfano-Colton bill, which passed in the Assembly by a vote of 140-0, makes a hate crime a class E felony, carrying a maximum penalty of one to three years in prison or five years¹ probation. The bill encompasses hate crimes such as depicting a swastika, burning a cross or distributing messages with intent to harass, threaten or alarm people.
Before the new bill was passed, a hate crime such as spraying graffiti on a garage door was classified as intentional damage of property, a class A misdemeanor that carried a maximum penalty of a $250 fine, said Scott Cushing, Alfano's chief of staff.
The bill will now head to the Senate.
"I definitely support this move," said Lee Burke, whose family was the victim of the bias crime that prompted the bill¹s proposal. "I think it deserves more than the old penalty because [racial discrimination] upsets the apple cart of society."
Burke's Frances Drive home was vandalized on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as she and her family, including her husband, Roy, and three young daughters, were preparing to move in. The graffiti was discovered by a neighbor, who immediately alerted the family. The graffiti was removed the next day, and the Burke family has since moved into the home.
A similar incident occurred just down the block from the Burkes in November 2003. An arrest has not been made in either case.
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
