China News Service, March 9. According to a comprehensive compilation report by the US "World Journal", after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, hate crimes against Asians in New York City have increased, although the city has vowed to combat hate crimes, including former Mayor de Blasio. (Bill de Blasio) and the Manhattan District Attorney’s recent arrest of white homeless Steven Zajonc (Steven Zajonc) for assaulting Asian women, but there are actually fewer hate crimes convictions, with most hate crime charges Dropped before conviction.
State Department of Justice figures show that many people charged with hate crimes are exempt teens and people with mental illnesses.
Moreover, the handling of hate crimes in different districts is also very different. Even if the prosecution collects a large amount of evidence, it will be withdrawn during the debate on reaching a plea agreement. New York City ran 569 arrests for hate crimes from 2015 to 2020, and was eventually arrested by Only 15 percent were convicted, with about 23 percent in Manhattan and just 1 percent in the Bronx.
Since Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark took office in 2016 through 2020, there have been 92 hate crime arrests and only one conviction in the district.
Between 2015 and 2020, Brooklyn ran 173 hate crime arrests, resulting in 30 convictions; Queens made 110 arrests, resulting in 15 convictions; and Staten Island made 30 arrests, resulting in three convictions.
Prosecutors and hate crime experts say the disparity between arrests and convictions for hate crimes is stark, illustrating the difficulty of prosecuting motives for hate crimes, as politicians vow to fight hate crimes and motives are two different things.
The Bronx District Attorney's Office prosecuted 85 hate crimes from 2015 to 2020, including 35 plea deals; the attorney's office said many of the hate crimes involved juveniles and people with mental illness, but not necessarily because of bias or hatred.
New York became the 44th state in the nation in 2000 to enact legislation to punish hate crimes based on race, gender, religion, disability and sexual orientation. Then-Governor George Pataki said when he signed it into law in October that year, The issue of hate crimes must be given special attention because of its destructive power to society.
New York has more than 60 specific rules for hate crimes, including threats and possession of biological weapons.
In addition, New York law stipulates that charges and sentences for hate crimes must be increased by one class. For example, a class D felony is upgraded to a class C, a class A misdemeanor is upgraded to a class E felony, and the minimum and maximum sentences are also increased in years.
Nineteen percent of serious hate crime suspects arrested in New York City from 2015 to 2020 ended up being convicted of felonies.
The four-fold increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in New York City in 2021 is worrying, said Jo-Ann Yoo, Korean-American chief executive of the Asian American Federation.
She said the Asian-American community expects the support of elected officials and law enforcement to take Asian-American complaints seriously.
The city police's Hate Crimes Task Force changed its head last month, and Mayor Adams said the city and law enforcement have had an inadequate response to hate crime complaints in recent years.
"We've been reluctantly facing up to hate crimes over the years, and I'm not worried that we're going to hide the number of hate crimes, but it's the only way to solve the problem," he said, referring to a South Korean diplomat who recently The unprovoked slap in the face in Manhattan initially failed to be investigated as a troubling hate crime.
(Sun Liang)