STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5931
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 2, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. LALOR -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of
falsely reporting a hate crime as a class E felony
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 240.49 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 240.49 Falsely reporting a hate crime.
4 A person is guilty of falsely reporting a hate crime, as defined in
5 section 485.05 of this chapter, when, knowing the information reported,
6 conveyed or circulated to be false or baseless, he or she:
7 1. Initiates or circulates a false report or warning of an alleged
8 occurrence or impending occurrence of a hate crime under circumstances
9 in which it is not unlikely that public alarm or inconvenience will
10 result; or
11 2. Reports, by word or action, to an official or quasi-official agency
12 or organization having the function of dealing with emergencies involv-
13 ing danger to life or property, an alleged occurrence or impending
14 occurrence of a hate crime which did not in fact occur or is not about
15 to occur; or
16 3. Gratuitously reports to a law enforcement officer or agency: (a)
17 the alleged occurrence of a hate crime which did not in fact occur; or
18 (b) an allegedly impending occurrence of a hate crime which in fact is
19 not about to occur; or (c) false information relating to a hate crime or
20 to the alleged implication of some person therein.
21 Falsely reporting a hate crime is a class E felony.
22 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
23 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07389-01-1
