New York City’s current Hate Violence Prevention strategy has been a failure. In 2017, 325 hate crimes were reported to the NYPD; in 2019 there were 420; in 2021 there were 565, and coming out of Q1 of 2022, complaints are up 75%. We are four years into the city’s hate violence crisis and the numbers continue to climb.

The city’s response to date has centered almost exclusively on law enforcement, with millions spent to staff the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Forces. But the NYPD has proven itself unable to reverse the upward trajectory in identity-based violence, and over the last five years there have been a total of only 87 hate crimes convictions in New York City.

This is because policing and prosecution have been the wrong strategies from the beginning. Research shows that hate crimes laws have no deterrent effect, and many of the communities targeted by hate violence are also the least likely to report to the police. Hate crimes arrests are by definition post-hoc, not a prevention strategy, and impossible to scale to the size of the problem. If we are serious about preventing violence, it’s past time for a new approach.

An effective hate violence prevention strategy must begin within the communities that are being targeted, and resource community-based organizations to empower vulnerable New Yorkers and address the factors that lead to bias incidents.

This approach emphasizes culturally competent and socially responsive diversity education for all ages; building robust, active ties between communities to cultivate shared interests and responsibility; bystander intervention training; community-based reporting of hate violence incidents; and community care, including community-led transformative justice processes as well as counseling and peer support services for survivors of violence.

The NYC Against Hate coalition is seeking an expansion of funding for these key programs:

P.A.T.H. Forward: We call on Mayor Adams to increase funding for the P.A.T.H. Forward program to $10 million, directed to the same experienced anchor organizations so that they can build on the program’s successes to date. P.A.T.H. Forward was initiated by the de Blasio administration and in its first year directed $2.4 million in funding to six anchor organizations to provide programs and services that address hate violence, as well as provide grants to additional organizations that serve vulnerable populations. The goal is to ensure a comprehensive, community-driven approach to preventing bias incidents and hate crimes, and public safety; strengthen relations among diverse communities through programming and restorative justice practices; provide educational resources and training; develop strategies to enhance reporting; improve data collection on bias incidents and hate crimes; and to expand victim services.

Hate Crimes Prevention Initiative: The City Council’s Hate Crimes Prevention Initiative provides resources to community-based organizations to engage in culturally-competent hate violence prevention and education, and comprises a significant portion of the programmatic budget of the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. It was funded at approximately $1.7 million dollars in FY20 and in the years following, that already low-level of funding has been cut repeatedly, NYC Against Hate supports the New York City Council’s proposal to increase funding for HCPI to $5 million in FY23.

Hope Against Hate: The Hope Against Hate Campaign is the Asian American Federation-led comprehensive response to the brutal wave of anti-AAPI violence rocking New York City. We ask that the Council fully fund this Campaign alongside the direct services provided by community organizations through a $6 million allocation to the AAPI Community Support Initiative. The initiative is led by the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and would support AAPI-led and -serving organizations with direct services, mental health support, youth programs, racial literacy, and other culturally competent services to create a safer New York City where all communities can thrive.