Res 1441-2020

By Council Members Cornegy, Barron, Adams and Chin Whereas, In 2019, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested a women in the Bronx for making over 24,000 false 911 calls for emergencies that never occurred; and Whereas, Months later, a woman in Central Park called the police on a birdwatcher to report false threats which had not occurred; and Whereas, According to Lieutenant John D'Amico of the NYPD's Communications Division, as quoted in The New York Daily News, when false reports are made, "[p]olice and firefighters have to respond to each of those calls, taking services away from real victims with real emergencies"; and Whereas, On June 5, 2020, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recognized and publicly announced that New Yorkers have experienced a growing number of 911 calls which are race-based and falsely reported; and Whereas, According to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the City's Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination and makes it illegal to threaten to harm someone based on their race or membership in another protected class; and Whereas, In 2020, New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz introduced A.3566, an act to amend the New York Penal Law "in relation to including falsely reporting an incident as a specified offense for the purposes of hate crimes"; and Whereas, Lawmakers in California, Michigan and Oregon have also pushed for legislation to penalize the false reporting of a crime motivated by race, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation; and Whereas, According to The New York Times, falsely reported crimes have led to wrongful arrests and undermined important rights such as the presumption of innocence, underscoring the need for legislative action to ensure falsely reported incidents are not used against innocent individuals; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, A.3566, classifying falsely reported incidents as hate crimes. LS #15215/15562 09/16/2020 AH