Keeping pressure on the Progressive Democrat Majority in the state legislature to make New York safer, GOP members in the assembly have introduced a bill identifying crimes that should not be eligible for cashless bail. The legislation, spurred by the arrest of a Cornell University student who made threats against Jews on campus, will ensure threats of mass harm may be treated as hate crimes while giving judges more discretion in making pre-trial decisions.
“Democrats passed their bail reform disaster in 2019, and three times since, they’ve made inconsequential changes claiming the problems were fixed, said the assembly’s Republican leader, Will Barclay. “The terrifying incident at Cornell University shows they haven’t fixed anything.”
According to Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano, the Democrat bail reform laws could have allowed Patrick Dai—the Cornell student charged with posting vicious online threats toward Jewish people—to be released from jail on his own recognizance. “This is just one more example serving as evidence for an urgent change to New York's bail laws,” DeStefano said. “Thankfully, in this scenario, federal authorities were called in to investigate those threats, and Dai was apprehended and held without bond.”
Cornell made national headlines when Dai threatened to kill and rape Jewish students on an online forum, leaving the university’s Jewish community feeling vulnerable. Some students, fearing personal harm, left the Cornell campus. “Fortunately, the investigation was in the hands of federal authorities and not the state,” Barclay noted. “Had that been the case, Dai could have returned to campus grounds or any neighborhood to continue terrorizing the community.”
“We don’t need to see another hate crime unfold to know changes must be made to the disastrous bail policy,” DeStefano continued. “If the alleged racist perpetrator at Cornell was charged under New York law, he could have been released on his own recognizance. Our bill will close a loophole that should have never been opened. Threats of mass harm to any group of people warrant a more serious consequence, not merely a slap on the wrist. It’s time the punishment matches the crime.”
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Allow the crimes of Aggravated Threat of Mass Harm and Making a Threat of Mass Harm to be charged as Hate Crimes;
Add the following crimes to the list of qualifying offenses, making them eligible for bail whether or not they are charged as Hate Crimes: Aggravated Threat of Mass Harm, Making a Threat of Mass Harm, and Aggravated Harassment in the First Degree;
Add the following crimes to the list of qualifying offenses when charged as hate crimes: Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree, Harassment in the Second Degree, and menacing in the First, Second, and Third Degree;
Increase the penalty for the crime of Making a Threat of Mass Harm from a class B to a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a maximum fine in the amount of $1,000;
Increase the penalty for the crime of Aggravated Threat of Mass Harm from a class A misdemeanor to a class E felony, punishable by up to four years imprisonment;
Clarify that the class D violent felony crime of Making a Terroristic Threat is a qualifying offense eligible for bail/remand.
“The Assembly Republican Conference has made it clear: antisemitism anywhere, at any time, will not be tolerated – and certainly not at our colleges and universities,” Barclay stated. Last week, he introduced the Dismantling Student Anti-Semitism Act, which would mandate sensitivity training at all higher education institutions across the state while recording and reporting incidents of hate and discrimination. Institutions that fall out of compliance with the Act’s requirements would be ineligible to receive state aid.
Ever since the Democrats eliminated bail for most crimes, New York has been experiencing a crime wave as criminals believe they can operate with no consequence. In addition to drug crimes, robberies, and a whole host of other infractions, the state is seeing an uptick in hate crimes and threats based on religion.