In this season, you don't have to go far to find a Nativity scene or a menorah, but recently some vandals have decided to take on the role of the grinch. The AP reports that in the past few years, public menorahs have been attacked and destroyed by vandals. Recently, an 11-foot aluminum menorah that was in front of a Long Island drug store was targeted and damaged.
The police are considering this to be a hate crime, but is it?
In other posts about hate crimes, I explained that a hate crime is when a crime is committed against a person because of their "race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation" (Section 485.05 of the New York Penal Code).
Previously, the examples have all been attacks against people such as assault or mugging, but here we have a misdemeanor of vandalism committed by damaging an object. So, do the same rules apply when it isn't direct violence against a human being?
Well, in another part of the definition of a hate crime, it give examples of some of the crimes, and several do not require the victim to be physically threatened: criminal mischief, menacing or burglary.
Criminal mischief is defined as "intentionally damages property of another person" (Section 145.00). The victim does not need to be present or in danger; if his property has been damaged, and not his body, he is still the victim of a hate crime (if the act was done because of a specific quality that the victim has).
In a previous article "Hate Crimes: Double Time," it was said that if you're convicted of a hate crime, the penalty may be doubled.
So if these vandals, who were on tape, were caught, they could face the fines of a class A misdemeanor: no more than one year in prison (Section 70.15) and a fine of no more than $1,000 (Section 80.05). But since it is a hate crime, an attack on an object representing a religious belief and practice, it would be no more than 2 years in prison and a $2,000 fine.
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