NEW YORK (PIX11) — A rise in hate crimes has both Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul imploring New Yorkers to bring the temperature down. It comes as the war in Israel rages on.
“I have not witnessed in my entire time in this city the level of outward hate that I’m seeing,” Adams said.
The NYPD reports hate crimes are up 7% overall since the Hamas terror attack that began the war in Israel — with the majority being a spike in antisemitic activity.
Adams is calling on everyone to disagree without being disagreeable.
“Hate has no place in our city, and we all have an awesome responsibility to lift up our city during this extremely challenging, challenging time,” Adams said.
“This cruelty by New Yorkers against New Yorkers must stop,” said Hochul, speaking a short time before the mayor.
On Tuesday, Hochul promised statewide resources to combat hate. She is offering a tens of millions of dollars in state grants to secure houses of worship and help local law enforcement prevent and solve hate crimes.
Additionally, Hochul wants cops to more aggressively use red flag laws to take guns from those making threats and said state police will expand their social media analysis to monitor threats on schools and college campuses.
Finally, with colleges being a hotbed for much of the recent protesting, Hochul is ordering an independent review of antisemitism and anti-discrimination policies on all CUNY campuses.
“Let me restate in the strongest of words: Every single New Yorker has a right to feel safe and to be safe as they go about their daily lives, and we must accept nothing less,” Hochul said.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the governor’s office said New York State Police have taken into custody a person of interest related to someone threatening an antisemitic mass shooting attack on the campus of Cornell University upstate.
