At NYC Bar, Cuomo Proposes New Domestic Terrorism Charge in NY State Law (New York Law Journal)
New York Law Journal, August 15, 2019
At NYC Bar, Cuomo Proposes New Domestic Terrorism Charge in NY State Law
“Speaking at the New York City Bar Association headquarters in Manhattan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo provided more details on a proposal to add a new crime of domestic terrorism to the state’s penal law in response to the recent mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.”
Cuomo decried the shooting, which the police said targeted Mexicans last week, as a “mass hate crime,” which he now wants to define in state law as an act of domestic terrorism.
“These are American citizens who are radicalized, not by a foreign ideology, but rather radicalized by hate for other Americans,” Cuomo said. “But that is sill terrorism.”
The proposal, if enacted, would make New York the first state in the country to redefine domestic terrorism as a crime in state law as described by Cuomo. He criticized federal lawmakers, including President Donald Trump, for not taking similar measures after the nation’s most recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.
