ALBANY, NY – Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay (R,C-Pulaski) and the Assembly Republican Conference have introduced a bill that would make certain criminal offenses bail-eligible. In part, the bill will ensure threats of mass harm may be treated as hate crimes while giving judges more discretion in making pre-trial decisions.
New York Democrats’ bail reform laws could have allowed Patrick Dai—the Cornell student charged with posting vicious online threats toward Jewish people—to be released from jail on his own recognizance. This is just one more example serving as evidence for an urgent change to New York’s bail laws. Thankfully, in this scenario, federal authorities were called in to investigate those threats; Dai was apprehended and held without bond on Tuesday, Oct. 31. His next scheduled court appearance is on Wednesday, Nov. 15th.
Cornell University made national headlines when Dai threatened to kill and rape Jewish students on an online forum, leaving the university’s Jewish community feeling vulnerable. Some students, fearing personal harm, left the Cornell campus. Fortunately, the investigation was in the hands of federal authorities and not the state; had that been the case, Dai could have returned to campus grounds or any neighborhood to continue terrorizing the community.
“Democrats passed their bail reform disaster in 2019. Three times since, they’ve made inconsequential changes claiming the problems were fixed. The terrifying incident at Cornell University shows they haven’t fixed anything,” said Leader Barclay. “We don’t need to see another hate crime unfold to know changes must be made to Democrats disastrous bail policy. If the alleged racist perpetrator at Cornell was charged under New York law, he could have been released on his own recognizance. Our bill will close a loophole that should have never been opened. Threats of mass harm to any group of people warrant a more serious consequence, not merely a slap on the wrist. It’s time the punishment matches the crime.”
The bill would create the following measures:
Allow the crimes of Aggravated Threat of Mass Harm and Making a Threat of Mass Harm to be charged as Hate Crimes;
Add the following crimes to the list of qualifying offenses making them eligible for bail whether or not they are charged as Hate Crimes: Aggravated Threat of Mass Harm, Making a Threat of Mass Harm and Aggravated Harassment in the First Degree;
Add the following crimes to the list of qualifying offenses when charged as hate crimes: Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree, Harassment in the Second Degree and menacing in the First, Second and Third Degree;
Increase the penalty for the crime of Making a Threat of Mass Harm from a class B to a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a maximum fine in the amount of $1,000;
Increase the penalty for the crime of Aggravated Threat of Mass Harm from a class A misdemeanor to a class E felony, punishable by up to four years imprisonment;
Clarify that the class D violent felony crime of Making a Terroristic Threat is a qualifying offense eligible for bail/remand;
The proposed bill fixes one of the many loopholes in New York’s bail laws. The Assembly Republican Conference has made it clear: antisemitism anywhere, at any time, will not be tolerated – and certainly not at our colleges and universities. Last week, Assembly Republicans introduced the Dismantling Student Antisemitism Act (DSA Act) which would mandate sensitivity training at all higher education institutions across the state while recording and reporting incidents of hate and discrimination. Institutions that fall out of compliance with DSA Act requirements would be ineligible to receive state aid.
