Increases the penalties for bias related and gang related graffiti, and graffiti upon religious property

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1: Amends the Penal Law by adding section 60.31 which allows a judge to require completion of a diversity training program when the graffiti creator is convicted of Aggravated harassment in the first degree as defined in section 240.31 of the penal law.

Section 2: Amends Penal Law section 65.10(2) (h) to change Division of Substance Abuse Services to Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse.

Section 3: Amends penal Law Section 65.10 to add a new subdivision 6 which requires that, when practicable and not dangerous, the court require that the defendant convicted of such graffiti activity remove the graffiti from the property that was the underlying cause of the offense.

Section 4: Amends Penal Law Section 145.60 to make that section of law to become the lower offense of making graffiti in the second degree.

Section 5: Amends the Penal Law to add a new section 145.62 to create a new heightened crime of making graffiti in the first degree. Making graffiti in the first degree requires doing the commission of the crime of graffiti in the second plus it is done in a manner that either: a) promotes or encourages gang related activities or b) is graffiti placed on a religious building, structure, or curtilage of a place of worship or upon property consisting of religious symbols representative of expressing faith. To be convicted of this crime, the assailant would need to have knowledge that such property was religious property or was property that embodied a religious beliefs and that such person intended to damage such property. Graffiti in the first degree is a Class E Felony.

Section 6: Amends Penal Law section 240.31 which defines Aggravated harassment in the first degree to add section 1-a which includes graffiti placed on property that is motivated by a person's race, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, or other factors as aggravated harassment.

Justification

This bill recognizes that existing law does not appropriately address the growing problem of graffiti, especially that graffiti that is motivated by gang related activity or against houses of worship or religious property.

Graffiti is a pervasive problem that causes damage to property, lowers property values, lowers the wellbeing of the neighborhood, may heighten the incidence of crime, and represents a serious quality of life problem fox many New Yorkers. The laws in place now have not gone far enough to stem the growing trend in graffiti which has even targeted Houses of worship and often can contain messages of hate. Such graffiti can also be used as a tool of organized gangs to promote their illegal activities.

In this vein, these amendments take into account many facets of the issue ranging from mindless vandalism to targeted hate. First, this legislation requires that anyone caught creating graffiti is taught the lasting lesson of the difficulty of cleaning up such vandalism by allowing a judge to require, where practicable and not unduly dangerous, that as part of the punishment that the graffiti be cleaned up with the property owner's consent.

This bill creates a class E felony to combat this problem. It also adds as Aggravated harassment in the first degree graffiti motivated by a person's characteristics such as race, national origin, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or other factors. This is creates a tool to help those being harassed and intimidated based upon their religious beliefs,ethnicity, sex, or other characteristics. It requires that those who are found to have committed aggravated harassment, graffiti or not, that we address the underlying problem and require that in the court's discretion that the offender complete a diversity training program.

Also as a class E felony, this legislation creates the offense of graffiti in the first degree when the offender creates graffiti that either promotes or encourages gang related activities or is done on or in the curtilage or a place of religious worship or on a display of religious symbols. This recognizes that graffiti designed to further crime or to attack religious freedoms is far more serious that than graffiti created as mindless vandalism. That the underlying sentiment is far more dangerous and should be addressed as such by both categorization as a class E felony.

This bill goes far to address the realities and spectrum of the issues graffiti presents. It teaches the hard lessons of consequences by requiring the errant vandal to clean up his or her mess. It also addresses underlying problems of hate and violence by recategorizing certain types of graffiti as class E felonies.

Prior legislative history

2014 - S. 2251, Passed Senate 2012 - S. 532, Passed Senate.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This law shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall have become law.