A state law approved in 1982 to increase the penalty for acts of desecration against synagogues and churches has been extended by new legislation to include damage to educational and residential premises, Assemblyman Sheldon Silver (D. Manhattan) reported this week.
Two bills sponsored by Silver to address the problem were approved by the Assembly, and similar measures, introduced in the State Senate by Sen. Norman Levy (R-C. Nassau) were approved overwhelmingly in each house and are now on Governor Mario Cuomo’s desk for his expected signature.
One measure amends the state penal law to expand the crime of aggravated harassment in the first degree to include damages to institutions maintained for the purposes of religious instruction. The 1981 measures also were sponsored by Assemblyman Silver and Sen. Levy.
RECENT INCIDENTS CITED
Citing recent shooting incidents directed against Yeshiva University in upper Manhattan and the nearby Jewish Memorial Hospital, Silver said “desecration of religious educational institutions is no less harmful than damages to places of religious worship.”
The other measure requires insurance firms to report all claims in excess of $250 for casualty losses resulting from desecration, vandalism and theft of religious articles suffered by houses of worship to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).
Silver said that the DCJS, after establishing a central registry of such acts, will promulgate rules and regulations to detail the contents of such reports. In addition, local law enforcement agencies will be required to file similar reports with the DCJS so that overall patterns of desecration, vandalsm and theft in New York state might be effectively determined.
Silver said that, from this information, the DCJS “will be able to see whether these incidents continue to rise in the state and thus make a comprehensive report to the Governor on or before July 1, 1984, and annually thereafter with respect to its findings and recommendations.”
He said it might be possible, after such “wanton acts” were recorded and evaluated “by the central registry,” to see whether such acts showed common characteristics which might “provide clues as to the identity and motives” of the perpetrators.
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