With an increase in bias incidents recently, New York state has set up a hotline to report the cases.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo set up the hotline – and he has had enough.

“There’s no place for racism. There’s no place for hate,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo said the issue is serious business.

“There has been an explosion recently in the number of hate crime instances. They are being investigated and it’s not a crime until we have evidence of it being a crime. But circumstantially, they were very, very troubling and we want to make a very clear statement in this state: that there is no place for racism, there is no place for hate, there is no place for swastikas, there is no place for racially-inflammatory and divisive rhetoric or acts.

This is New York. This is America. We are all immigrants and the way this state and this country works is we are a diverse population. By definition we are a diverse population. That’s what founded the country and the diversity is its strength, and we’re not going to let anyone turn the diversity into a weakness, and we’re not going to be pitted one against another. We are people from all difference races, from all difference countries, different religions, but we are one community at the end of the day.

Hateful rhetoric or hateful slogans are not just immoral, unethical, not nice, they’re also illegal in the state of New York.

We have a very strict hate crimes law that we take seriously and I want the people of the state of New York to know we’re going to enforce it.

I understand the political environment out there, and I understand the sentiments that have been raised, but the law is the law.

The hate crimes legislation and the hate crimes laws will be enforced.”

(Charles Gross – YWN)