Bill Text: NY S03644 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Designates certain offenses against emergency medical services personnel, firefighters, and law enforcement officers as hate crimes; includes the definition of emergency medical services personnel, firefighters, and law enforcement officers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 4-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-29 - REFERRED TO CODES [S03644 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-S03644-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          3644

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 29, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  MURRAY, BORRELLO, OBERACKER, RHOADS -- read twice
          and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee
          on Codes

        AN ACT to amend the penal  law,  in  relation  to  designating  offenses
          against law enforcement officers as hate crimes

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivisions 1, 2 and 4 of section 485.05 of the penal law,
     2  as amended by chapter 8 of the laws of 2019,  are  amended  to  read  as
     3  follows:
     4    1.  A person commits a hate crime when [he or she] such person commits
     5  a specified offense and either:
     6    (a) intentionally selects the  person  against  whom  the  offense  is
     7  committed  or  intended  to be committed in whole or in substantial part
     8  because of a belief or perception regarding the  race,  color,  national
     9  origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, reli-
    10  gious  practice,  age,  disability,  or  because  of actual or perceived
    11  employment as emergency medical services personnel, a firefighter  or  a
    12  law  enforcement  officer, or sexual orientation of a person, regardless
    13  of whether the belief or perception is correct, or
    14    (b) intentionally commits the act or acts constituting the offense  in
    15  whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding
    16  the  race,  color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or
    17  expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability, or because of
    18  actual or perceived employment as emergency medical services  personnel,
    19  a  firefighter  or a law enforcement officer, or sexual orientation of a
    20  person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct.
    21    2. Proof of race, color, national  origin,  ancestry,  gender,  gender
    22  identity  or  expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability,
    23  or because of  actual  or  perceived  employment  as  emergency  medical
    24  services personnel, a firefighter or a law enforcement officer, or sexu-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07535-01-5
        S. 3644                             2

     1  al orientation of the defendant, the victim or of both the defendant and
     2  the  victim  does not, by itself, constitute legally sufficient evidence
     3  satisfying the people's burden under paragraph (a) or (b) of subdivision
     4  one of this section.
     5    4. For purposes of this section:
     6    (a) the term "age" means sixty years old or more;
     7    (b)  the  term "disability" means a physical or mental impairment that
     8  substantially limits a major life activity;
     9    (c) the term "gender identity or expression" means a  person's  actual
    10  or  perceived gender-related identity, appearance, behavior, expression,
    11  or other gender-related characteristic regardless of the sex assigned to
    12  that person at birth, including, but not limited to, the status of being
    13  transgender;
    14    (d) the term "emergency  medical  services  personnel"  means  persons
    15  trained  and  certified  or  licensed to provide emergency medical care,
    16  whether on a paid or volunteer basis, as part of a basic life support or
    17  advanced life support pre-hospital emergency care service or in an emer-
    18  gency department or pediatric critical  care  or  specialty  unit  in  a
    19  licensed hospital;
    20    (e) the term "firefighter" means any firefighter regularly employed by
    21  a fire department of any municipality of the state of New York; and
    22    (f)  the  term  "law  enforcement officer" means any active or retired
    23  city or state law enforcement officer, peace  officer,  sheriff,  deputy
    24  sheriff, probation or parole officer, marshal, deputy, wildlife enforce-
    25  ment  agency,  state  correctional officer, or commissioned agent of the
    26  department of corrections and community  supervision,  as  well  as  any
    27  federal  law  enforcement  officer  or  employee, whose permanent duties
    28  include making arrests, performing search  and  seizures,  execution  of
    29  criminal arrest warrants, execution of civil seizure warrants, any civil
    30  functions performed by sheriffs or deputy sheriffs, enforcement of penal
    31  or  traffic laws, or the care, custody, control or supervision of incar-
    32  cerated individuals.
    33    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.