Edited by: TJVNews.com

Thanks to initiatives taken by New York City Councilman Mark Treyger, New York City residents can expect to be notified within 24 hours that a violent hate crime has taken place in their neighborhood and communities. On Wednesday, Treyger, a Democrat who represents  District 47 in Brooklyn, introduced this legislation as the city finds itself in the midst of anti-Semitic attacks which occur almost daily. In addition, general hate crimes are on the rise.

The Daily News reported that there were 428 hate crime complaints reported last year, a 20% increase from the 356 incidents in 2018, according to NYPD stats. There were 234 anti-Semitic hate crime complaints last year, a 26% bump from the 186 reported in 2018.

“The rise in hate crimes is unacceptable, and we must look at using every resource possible to make sure to protect New Yorkers,” Treyger said.

Several months ago, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio created the  Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. The new office is tasked with coordinating city agencies’ responses to hate crimes and developing community-based strategies to prevent them in the first place.

Deborah Lauter, an employee at the Anti-Defamation League for 18 years was introduced publicly as the first executive director of the newly established office in September.

“What motivates someone to take their hate and act out on it?” she said, according to the WABC report. “In this country, you have a right to be a bigot, right? It’s protected. What we’re seeing now is people being emboldened to act out on that kind of bigotry,” she declared.

This new bill would  require this office to offer notification that a violent hate crime has taken place with a day. Moreover, the bill would also make it incumbent on the office to provide information on what the city is doing in response to the incident as well as providing available resources to those affected  by the crime.The Daily News reported that this is intended to ensure the city has an individualized response to any alleged violent hate crime.

“It’s imperative that the rapid notification process, which the city uses in its Cure Violence initiative, apply to hate crimes, which can have a chilling effect on communities,” Treyger said. “Hate crimes require more than just tweets of condemnation, and currently, there’s not enough of a local connection to the response work.”

The mayor, Council speaker, public advocate and the Council member repping the district where a violent hate crime happened would also have to be notified under the measure, according to the Daily News report.