Lawmakers Seek To Toughen Penalty For Vandalizing Houses Of Worship
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On Friday, lawmakers and religious leaders called for tougher sentencing for those who vandalize houses of worship.
At a press conference outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, State Senator Jeff Klein said he is pushing for the bill now because there is only one month left in the legislative session.
Klein said right now it is a felony to commit vandalism inside a house of worship, and that his legislation will make it a felony for acts of vandalism outside a church, temple, or mosque.
Under his proposed law, anyone guilty of such a crime would face at least a year in prison.
"What makes me angry is there are still some who chalk this up as children playing pranks," said Klein. "Well that's absolute nonsense, and I think we have to punish those who interfere with our right to practice our religion."
"When we vandalize that, when we wreck that, when we deface that, as the senator said, we strike right at the heart of what makes us great as Americans and people of faith," said New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
"Someone who wants to hurt one of us, hurts all of us," said Rabbi Joe Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis. "It is said if you are compassionate to the cruel, you end up being cruel to the compassionate. If we don't have legislation in place that punishes the perpetrators, we cannot fulfill our moral mandate."
Klein said on Thursday he got a call from someone in his district saying graffiti had been sprayed on the rectory wall of Love Gospel Church in Van Nest, Bronx.
The senator pointed out it was just regular graffiti and there was nothing directed against the church.