The New York City Council has passed legislation to allow the NYPD to set up buffer zones around schools and houses of worship.
The New York City Council has passed legislation allowing the NYPD to set up buffer zones around schools and houses of worship.It's parts of an effort to combat the rising tide of hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, but the bills were slammed by civil liberties advocates.
Council Speaker Julie Menin said the bills were personal for her because she is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, but she said the move was necessary because of 'the 182% rise in antisemitic incidents in recent months in our city, or churches being vandalized across the five boroughs, or anti-Muslim hate crimes experiencing a 69% increase in 2024.'She added, 'The increase in hateful acts around the city is absolutely abhorrent, and we had to do something about it.'NYCLU objects to proposed billsThe New York Civil Liberties Union and others who are aligned with Mayor Zohran Mamdani protested the legislation on the steps of City Hall as the council was meeting.NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said the potential law would be a violation of the First Amendment, as she unveiled a map that showed thousands of schools and houses of worship that could be protected by police.'And we say, we object. These security perimeters would give the NYPD broad discretion to censor speech, target protesters, and arrest dissenters,' she said.Menin disagreed.'These bills in no way infringe on the First Amendment right to protest, which is sacrosanct. The bills don't even talk about protests,' she said.Mayor Mamdani non-committal on the billsSo far, Mamdani has not committed to signing the legislation.'The mayor is keenly aware of the serious concerns regarding these bills' limiting of New Yorkers' constitutional rights, and he will keep these concerns in mind for any bills that land on his desk. He wants to ensure both the right to prayer and the right to protest are protected here in New York City,' a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement.Even if the mayor vetoes the bills, it takes two-thirds of the council's 51 members, or 34 members, to override a mayoral veto, and the bill has 35 co-sponsors.Gov. Kathy Hochul has also introduced a bill to set up protest buffer zones at houses of worship across the entire state.
NYCLU Julie Menin Zohran Mamdani New York City Council
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