New legislation cracking down on hate crimes

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)--The war between Israel and Hamas has further fueled incidents of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate. A new bill would add a penalty to New York State’s Hate Crimes Law for any SUNY or CUNY Student convicted of such crime.

"They will be expelled, and they would not be allowed to ever take a course, be enrolled, fill out an application to take credit for our taxpayer funded outstanding universities and colleges in the SUNY and CUNY system," explained Republican Senator, Jim Tedisco, who sponsors the bill.

He said while free speech is welcome on college campuses, hate speech should never be.

"When they get into terror, hate speech, they get into calling for hateful actions, antisemitism, racism, we are providing for that now to be a punishment of expulsion in the state law now," said Tedisco.

He isn’t the only lawmaker with a bill about hate crimes. Democratic Senator, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, wants New York to update its list of hate crimes-- something he said is long overdue.

"We introduced the Hate Crimes Modernization Act last week," explained Hoylman-Sigal. "And it updates the list of crimes that can be prosecuted as hate crimes-- adding 31 new offenses to our existing hate crimes statutes including gang assault, sexual assault, and abuse, graffiti, false reporting, and arson."

Hoylman-Sigal also sponsors legislation called Stop Hiding Hate, which would require social media companies to report hate to the New York State Attorney General and reveal how it is being addressed on their platforms. A similar bill already passed in California and became law.