The New York state government announced this Monday that it allocated Additional $2.5 million to increase staffingof the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to also deploy ten investigators specialized in the Big Apple, Albany, Buffalo and Rochester.
The new “hounds” will focus largely on monitoring the violence and threats on social networks.
This is the latest action announced by Governor Kathy Hochul to combat hate attacks, in all their forms, after the terrible Hamas terrorist incursion, which sparked a sequence of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.
“This increase in resources is one more step to ensure that New Yorkers are protected from national and international threatsstressed the state president.
This new investment will allow the New York State Police to act as a force multiplier for the JTTF, ensuring that All cases are thoroughly examined and investigated.
They will also strengthen the links that already exist with the Counterterrorism Center of the New York State Intelligence Center,allowing greater participation in investigations into racially motivated violent extremists, domestic violent extremist groups, anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists, as well as as in conspiracy theories and misinformation.
Rising attacks
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the Jewish nation’s response have shaken the New York metropolitan area, home to a quarter of American Jews.
Protests have been reported almost daily and the Jewish community has been shaken by anti-Semitic events that have iincluding swastikas carved into store windows, assaults and harassment.
The total number of bias incidents investigated by law enforcement increased by 124 percent in Octoberled by a 214 percent increase in anti-Jewish incidents.
Anti-Muslim attacks increased in October from 0 to 8 incidents. In general, a series of high-profile attacks have been identified, against Muslim and Palestinian New Yorkers, and hate crimes against Asian New Yorkersalso continue to be high in recent years.
Last week, Governor Hochul also announced the launch of a new hotline and online form so that New Yorkers can quickly report incidents of hate and bias.
Keep a watchful eye on universities
The universities of New York have been the point of greatest tension and in where more incidents, attacks and threats have been precisely recorded.
One of the most troubling events reported two weeks ago was when a 21-year-old Cornell University student was charged with allegedly threatening Jewish students at the Ivy League school online, authorities said.
The young man faces a charge of publishing threats of kill or injure another person using interstate communications, said federal prosecutors in the Northern District of New York.
In a post on an online discussion forum, the student allegedly threatened to “shoot up” a campus building. In another post, he said that He would “stab” or “cut the throat” of Jewish men, and rape or throw Jewish women off a cliff. that he found on campus, according to local media.
In this sense, Hochul regretted that anti-Semitism takes over some university spaces. He clarified: While I support anyone’s right to peacefully protest, some incidents on state campuses have gone too far.
