NY names white supremacist violence as Domestic Terrorism


Amid a national debate about racism, extremism and mass shootings, governor Andrew Cuomo proposed to make New York the first state to classify “hate-fuelled” killings as domestic terrorism on Thursday.
Democrat Mr Cuomo unveiled the proposal almost two weeks after the back-to-back massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, prompted all-too-familiar cries for action from both political parties.
Describing the need to address the “new violent epidemic” of “hate-fuelled, American-on-American terrorism,” Mr Cuomo called for raising the penalties for violence motivated by race, gender, sexual orientation or other protected classes by making them punishable by up to life in prison without parole.
Lawmakers have wrestled with how to define and prosecute domestic terrorism for years.
There is no federal crime of domestic terrorism. While congress passed a law after the 9/11 attacks defining domestic terrorism as violent acts intended to intimidate civilians or the government, that law did not create an accompanying federal offence, such as exists for international terrorism.
Acts of domestic terrorism have instead been prosecuted under different charges, such as attempting to “destroy a building in interstate commerce”.
Dozens of states, including New York, have enacted state-level laws defining terrorism. Some, including Georgia and Vermont, explicitly mention domestic terrorism.
But those laws, like the federal one, largely measure terrorism as an attempt to coerce or destabilise the public or the government.
New York’s new law, by contrast, would specify that domestic terrorism included acts of mass violence against people for their identities.
“White supremacists, anti-Semites, anti-LGBTQ, white nationalists: these are Americans committing mass hate crimes against other Americans,” Mr Cuomo said. “And it should be recognised for what it is: domestic terrorism.”
The governor also called on congress to enact a new federal domestic terrorism law. Senator Martha McSally introduced a bill on Wednesday to do that.

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