Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Convenes Unity Summit to Address Hate Crimes and Violence and Delivers Remarks

Thank you all for joining us here today. We're here to say two words, no more. You heard the people, many of whom were victims or had family members who were victims of crimes speak out so beautifully, so powerfully in that video. And that is our message of the day. I'm going to acknowledge everyone who put together this Unity Summit.

Thank our Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, who you'll be hearing from this afternoon for his work on this important initiative. Also, you'll be hearing from Loretta Lynch, the former US Attorney General. Karol Mason, I want to thank you for your heartfelt, warm welcome and all the great work you do here at John Jay and to any John Jay students out there, thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you.

I know we have Darcel Clark, our Bronx District Attorney. Rossana Rosado, the Division of Criminal Justice Services Commissioner has joined us. Maria Imperial, the Division of Human Rights Commissioner. Yes, Jackie Bray, Homeland Security. Elizabeth Cronin, the Office of Victims Services and all the survivors and families in attendance today, and of course our advocates.

It's my honor to welcome you to what we call New York United, our inaugural Unity Summit. And again, thanks to Karol Mason for hosting us. It's the first time in our State's history that we brought together elected leaders, survivors, community and faith leaders with one purpose. And that is to stand unified against hate. And there's no better place to do it than right here in New York City, one of the most diverse, dynamic populations on the face of this Earth, our home. And that's a great pride as New Yorkers, our melting pot of cultures, perspectives, traditions.

But we also know many are also threatened by this. Individuals who have hate in their hearts, they want to tear us down, they want to intimidate us, they want to silence us. And the hard truth is this, we've lost some ground in our fight against bigotry over the last few years. There's been an alarming spike in anti-Semitism, anti-Asian, anti-everything. The numbers are stunning. Attacks on our transgender neighbors, a troubling rise in white supremacists.

Hate and bias more and more seem to be pervading our society with devastating consequences. You know, as I mentioned in the video — the voices you heard in that video. They all know the price of hate. They know the price of letting hate fester. Zeneta Everhart's son survived the Tops shooting in Buffalo, an act of a white supremacist whose hateful thoughts were fed by insidious websites.

The dark web where he absorbed this information and wanted to be a purveyor of that himself and he was successful. I met Zeneta's son many times. I've sat with her. It's terrorizing to think what happens when you leave your home to go to a grocery store on a beautiful May day, the anniversary of which is this Mother's Day. One year later.

You think about Devorah Halberstam's son Ari who was killed in an act of anti-Semitic terrorism. To this day, his mother has channeled that loss into a powerful movement, and she's been unrelenting in her pursuit to bring justice and to bring hope to communities that are feeling under siege.

Mohamed Amin survived a hateful attack on the eve of the New York City Pride parade. Cecille Lai and her son, a military veteran, were assaulted in Queens because of their Asian heritage. Pearl Love attacked on the subway for being transgender. Joselo Lucero's brother Marcelo was killed by group that intended to hurt Latinos. They all lived it. I shouldn't say lived. That sounds like it's in the past tense. They still live this, and it has an effect on your psyche, your sense of security. The pain and trauma lasts a very long time after the act of hate occurs, and as your Governor, that's just unacceptable.

That there's people living in our great State who've had to endure the unspeakable. No one should ever live in fear of being targeted because of the color of their skin, their ethnicity, their religious beliefs, their disability, how they identify, or who they pray to. So, how do we right these wrongs? This is when leadership matters. Standing up together against these cowardly acts. As one united powerful voice, we call out hate when we see it, and we take meaningful action to protect our marginalized communities. That's the work that continues today. That's the purpose of this gathering with all of you and our partners throughout the State.

We launched a Hate and Bias Prevention Unit within our Human Rights Division last December. We are proactive in our efforts to stymie this flow of hate coming into our communities. We launched a massive statewide effort with stakeholders in all 62 counties, and that is reflected by more than 400 people joining us today.

As I'm fond of saying, you know, it's not a surprise, I'm from Buffalo. You have to be kind of scrappy, don't mind a good fight. When you attack one of us, you're picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers. And that is not the fight you want to pick. That is the idea behind the Hate and Bias Prevention Unit and the purpose of today's Summit — standing together, being bold, raising up our voices, sharing strategies, resources, ideas, perspectives, promoting and scaling local initiatives that work, building awareness so others can join the fight.

And getting this down into our schools. I was in the Elmont School District yesterday on Long Island, a beautiful melting pot — saw kids of all backgrounds playing together, working in a STEAM lab. They didn't care about the color of the skin of their classmate. They're all kids. That's how we start out. It's how it's supposed to be. But at some point in people's lives, whether it's the influence of social media, or what they're hearing at home, what they're seeing on the station that's been aired on television all day - somehow, hate gets in their heart. We have to reverse that. We have to show them there's a better way building that awareness.

So, today you're going to hear from people at every level. There's not one answer. There're many ways to attack this. You'll hear from the United States Attorney — former United States Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. What a name, what a powerhouse. Her voice is powerful. She has seen so much. And to bring her life's experiences to this forum is something we're grateful for.

You'll be hearing from members of our State Police - a high ranking unit, our Domestic Terrorism Task Force. And unfortunately, they've been too busy. I track the numbers of hate crimes throughout the State, the concentration, the counties hit the hardest, what the area of hate is, and monitoring social media. Because our goal is to not just solve crimes, but prevent crimes. And that's one of the reasons we have tough red flag laws in our State as well. When you see someone that's showing the signs already, they could do harm to themselves or do harm to others, you have to be ready to take the guns out of their hands or out their houses and stop the insanity of the violence.

And I wish every other state had the same laws we have - and they don't. They need to. They need to. We saw since the Buffalo massacre last year, we went back to the legislature and said, "We can do more." Passed some of the toughest laws in our nation. The red flag laws saying to our State Police, and anyone, "You see something, you're going to take action." No more questioning. And that has made a profound difference in keeping the guns away from thousands and thousands of individuals.

But I also have to call on other sources of support, trusted voices in communities - the grassroots organizers, the clergy, the faith-based community. They're always the ones who are there, whether it's during a pandemic, whether it's consoling a family after a shooting, whether it's presiding over the funerals of a loved one, victims of all kinds of crimes, but particularly the insidious hate crimes. They're on the front lines. They're doing extraordinary work. And I'll never take for granted their depth of passion, their love of fellow humankind.

Our goal today is to build stronger connections - to deepen that sense of responsibility to each other, to connect the dots at the state, federal and local levels, spark collaboration where there has not been adequate collaboration in the past. And in doing so, finding everything we can do in our power to start eradicating this disease, this sickness of hate.

It's also a declaration. We're not going back. We know diversity is our greatest strength. You've heard that countless times. It becomes almost cliche, but it's true. Just walk the streets of this great city. Go to communities where people have embraced fascinating cultures and walks of life and identities, and just saying, "My gosh, we're all so connected." We're human beings. We have this enduring bond. And how can we let others sever that bond between us? We are the ones that are going to strengthen it. And we'll fight like hell to protect our neighbors because they're part of the New York family. Today is just the beginning.

I said when I announced our Hate and Bias Unit last year that we're going to start taking this out - not just sit in a few places and talk about it and everybody go back to their daily lives. But let's have regional councils and have accountability and bring together, many of you who are in this room who've said yes, 10 regional councils because different parts of our State are dealing with different biases and challenges. And today, I'm proud to announce that those regional councils have been formed. They'll begin their work in the upcoming weeks. And there'll be many, many opportunities for others to get involved.

You also may have heard we just passed a new State Budget. Glad to be done. But within that, we put more money for enhancing our hate crime security efforts and prevention efforts as well because we need resources. We've secured an additional $35 million to help organizations that deal with communities that are high risk of hate crimes and vandalism, ramping up security measures at places of worship and vulnerable places, as well as we've done for the last few years, protecting their members.

Also, we need more trainings. We need sensitivity. We need to have more social media messaging, public awareness campaigns and outreach, and to let people see countervailing voices to the ones that seem to be dominating the conversation. That's something we can do. And let people, especially young people who aren't quite sure what path they're going to take, let them see something positive, something uplifting. The celebration of life that comes from accepting each other's differences and how collectively it all melts together - who does something quite extraordinary. Not every State can claim that.

I believe we'll be a model for the rest of the world. We can show what happens when people, good people, like-minded people who believe in the purpose that binds us all and why we're here on this Earth - to make other people's lives a little bit better, to lift people up. So, my faith taught me growing up, do as you do unto others, you would have them do unto you. Pretty basic. But every faith has its traditions, but the common denominator is lifting each other up. We're all God's children - have that sense of ownership of each other, and that's how we change people's attitudes and that's how we deal with the challenges of today.

That's how we treat people who have come a long journey and find their way to the City of New York and welcome them and help them beyond their way to a better life. That's what it's all about. It's showing love and compassion for each other and their circumstances - empathy. And I'm afraid, as I see so much out there, I feel like that's one of the core traits, the core values that has been lost. Because if we could empathize and put ourselves in each other's shoes and try to understand what it's like when you feel different from others, how isolating and lonely that can be. If you can just get that sense of connection, humanity, and empathy toward another person, it'll change how you treat them.

And I have every confidence that people in this room have an abundance of empathy. I learned this from my own mother. She had us taking care of kids with disabilities, young kids of color from tough circumstances. She had exchange students. We had such a big family. There's always somebody else thrown in. I was amazed at all the kids staying in our house all the time because she just had infinite love and capacity and empathy. And I believe that as Governor, I'm in a position to talk about that. That is not a weakness, it's a strength. Let's own that. Let that be one of our New York State characteristics. We know we're tough, we know we've got plenty of swagger, but also let's show that we have heart. That I love New York, or we love New York, that heart means something. That is who we are.

So, if you watch the video again, listen to those voices. They're not actors, they're not people who probably ever wanted to be in a video talking about what it's like to be the victim of a hate crime. I guarantee they did not. But they live something. And if we have the human capacity to empathize with their story and see them as brothers and sisters, let us be empowered in our own spirit and our own souls to take this mission and to do something quite extraordinary. And that is to help let people know that New York State is a special place, it is unique and is a place that is full of love. So, listen to Zeneta, Devorah, Mohamed, Pearl, Joselo, and all the others. Listen to their strength, their determination to take a horrific situation and turn it around to something positive because they stand strong, they're undeterred by the forces of hate, and therefore so should we.

And that is proof that here in the State of New York, I'm here to say you combine all of us, we outnumber the haters. We outnumber the haters. There are so many more of us that we band together. There's strength in the numbers and the certainty of our righteousness of our cause here. And we'll build up the communities and let the next generation know it stopped with us. That'll be part of our enduring legacy. It stopped right here. And we'll inspire others to stand with us. That is the moment. That is our moment. This is our defining moment and what kind of New York we want to live in, what kind of New Yorkers we want to be. And I will tell you, I am so optimistic. My belief in you is enduring. And there's no limit to the capacity of what we can do standing strong together against hate. Thank you very much.