New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is
creating a special police unit to investigate and prosecute a growing
number of reported hates crimes in the state.
Cuomo, a strong supporter of LGBT
rights, made the announcement on Sunday.
Hate crimes in New York City alone have
increased 30 percent this year.
“New York State will not allow the
law to be violated, period,” Cuomo told the congregation at the
Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. “Today I'm directing the
Division of State Police and the Division of Human Rights to put
together a special team of trained professionals that will
investigate these hate crime incidents all across the state. The
major ones, the minor ones, the infractions. And we will prosecute,
to the fullest extent of the law, the perpetrators of any of this
ugliness and divisiveness. Because it's not happening in this state.”
Cuomo added that the “ugly political
discourse” from the 2016 election did not end on November 8.
“In many ways it's gotten worse,”
Cuomo
said. “It's deepened into a social crisis that challenges our
very identity, as a state and as a nation and as a people. It's gone
beyond politics. It questions our basic American character: Who we
are and what we believe.”
A recent incident of vandalism at a
Brooklyn playground included swastikas and the words “Go Trump”
painted on a train-inspired children's climber.