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Sponsors
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Relates to the harassment of certain employees of a transit agency or authority
In Assembly Committee · Codes · Sponsor Latrice Walker
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S5475
Title of bill
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to harassing certain employees of a transit agency or authority
Purpose of bill
This bill will increase the safety of MTA employees by creating the new crime of aggravated harassment in the second degree.
Summary of provisions
Section one of the bill would add a new subdivision 3-a to Section 240 30 of the Penal Law to provide that a person is guilty of aggravated harassment in the second degree when they subject various transit employees, such as bus drivers, to physical contact, including spitting on them. It would be a class A misdemeanor.
Section two of the bill would provide that the act takes effect 90 days after it becomes law.
Existing law
The criminal conduct addressed by this bill is subject to lesser penalties under the existing Penal Law.
Legislative history
This is a new bill.
Justification
Increasing the penalty for subjecting transit employees to physical contact is intended to reduce these deplorable attacks including spitting on bus drivers and other transit employees by imposing a more serious punishment. It would add a new subdivision (3-a) to Section 240 30 of the Penal Law to provide that the act of harassment, including spitting, committed against certain transit employees shall constitute the crime of aggravated harassment in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment up to one year.
Currently, spitting on a transit employee is prosecuted under Penal Law 240.26, harassment in the second degree, which is a violation, punishable by imprisonment up to only 15 days. And, since a violation is not a crime, Those convictions are sealed, so that the police do not know if an offender has previously been convicted of spitting on transit employees. The specified transit employees in this bill are the same as those listed in Penal Law 120.05 (assault in the second degree), which likewise imposes a greater penalty for assaulting certain transit employees.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Section two of this bill states that this act shall take effect 90 days after the date on which it shall have become law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.