Mayor de Blasio Says He will Use Decoys to Prevent Hate Crimes for Any Group who Needs Them
By Yehudit Garmaise
To serve as “decoys,” plainclothes NYPD officers of Asian descent are serving in the city’s public spaces to identify perpetrators of hate crimes and to discourage anti-Asian violence, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a news briefing on March 25, the day that ended the period since Jan. 1, in which the NYPD reported 20 hate crimes that had targeted against Jews and 31 hate crimes that were directed at Asians.
Can the decoys actually prevent hate crimes?
“Unquestionably [the decoys] work,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told BoroPark24 today. “We had, in fact, just a week or two ago, someone who very violently approached an Asian person and threatened violence toward them, not knowing that that person was an NYPD undercover officer.
[That perpetrator was] arrested on the spot, so unquestionably, the [decoy] approach works.
Would the mayor consider using Jewish decoys to prevent hate crimes against Jews, who, last year, like many years, comprised the targets of 50% of the hate crimes that were committed in New York City?” BoroPark24 asked the mayor.
“Yes, we will apply [the decoys], whether in the Asian communities, the Jewish communities, the Muslim community: any community under attack, we will apply the same approach whenever needed,” said the mayor, although, nothing has been reported that he has yet done created decoys for other groups besides Asians.
Our real goal here, however, the mayor added, is to stop hate crimes at the root, “and create a different environment, to help teach our young people the right way, to show solidarity with all communities and respect for all communities.”
“I think we can do a lot with policing,” Mayor de Blasio said, “but I think we need to get at the root causes of [hate crimes] too.”
Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.