Rockland Officials Announce Human Rights Strategic Plan

NEW CITY, NY — Rockland County officials announced short and long-term strategies to combat crimes of hate, racism, violence, bias and vandalism. The plan comes in the wake of a terroristic attack on Hannukah celebrants in Monsey by an Orange County man wielding a machete.

It does not directly address the problems in the county in which development and anti-Semitism have been entwined for years. It does include a Human Rights Symposium scheduled for the spring.

Rockland Commissioner on Human Rights Constance Frazier, members of the Rockland County Human Rights Commission and County Executive Ed Day shared the details of their comprehensive Human Rights Strategy in a press conference recently at the Allison-Parris Office Building in New City.

"This is a process that must be driven by the people of Rockland. We in government do not have all the answers, but we know who does. We know that this is a County of smart, kind and caring individuals who will help us solve any problem and bridge any divide we face. But this will require compromise and it is going to take all of us, working together, to figure that out," said Frazier.

The Commission will press for greater openness, improved communication and push to increase understanding as a community:

• Commission on Human Rights will meet with local officials, schools, and community, religious and ethnic groups to hear their needs, concerns, ideas and recommendations first-hand.
• Analyze information gathered from meetings to develop topics of discussion and strategies for our upcoming yearly Human Rights Symposium.
• Request Federal Representatives identify and introduce legislation to address concerns about social media.
• Request State Representatives revisit Criminal Justice Reform to ensure all perpetrators of Hate Crimes are not released without bail back into the community.
• Provide assistance to organizations applying for New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes Grants.
• Continue to engage law enforcement in exploring use of LPR cameras throughout the County along with other protective strategies.
• Submit Human Rights Law to Rockland County Legislature.

Day asked the citizens of Rockland for their help.

"This cannot be a top down governmental approach — we need our entire community to help us in this process, from the County Legislature and elected officials to the average person focused on the day to day of their busy lives," he said. "We all need to be better; we must be more open with each other, we must see each other, meet with each other and learn about each other. I know in my heart that when we focus, when we make the effort, that we can do better together."

The emphasis on hate crimes is not surprising given the Dec. 28 attack.

It also makes the proposal from former county Legislator Nancy Low-Hogan look prescient. In September, she called for a countywide summit to address what she called "a rising tide of anger, hatred and anti-Semitism." She tied it to the county's development crisis and called for the summit as a pushback against the county's Republican committee, which had posted a video with anti-Semitic undertones warning about over-development and the local Hasidic community's political power.

"We need to work together collaboratively and collegially to mitigate the negative impacts of development, as well as ensure that hate-mongering is not tolerated," she said.

Rockland's problem has to do with building in less-developed areas and with the rapidly growing local Hasidic community.

The pressure for development is intense. Much of it is ethnic, as developers seek to build high-density housing for ultra-Orthodox Jewish families. It has included classic blockbusting techniques as residents in some communities have been targeted over and over by agents warning them to sell before they are outsiders on their own streets.

It has been exacerbated by corruption. For years, the county has been plagued with business owners including but not limited to landlords who have ignored building and health codes, and who have illegally converted buildings into schools and multi-family dwellings. Also, with corrupt officials who have taken bribes, looked the other way, or come up with schemes of their own.

It has been exacerbated by the experience of the parents and children in the East Ramapo school district, where an ultra-Orthodox majority on the school board cut spending for the public school kids and increased services for Hasidic private-school kids, along with actions such as selling or renting district facilities to yeshivas at below-market rates.

Many county residents have fallen into one or more categories: those opposed to over-development, those opposed to the lawbreaking, those opposed to the blockbusting, and those opposed to the actions of the East Ramapo school board.

Some have objected to what they see as preferential treatment of the ultra-Orthodox by politicians who want support from a community that tends to vote as a bloc. For example, a state grant of $1.6 million in 2014 for a 26,000 square foot kosher slaughterhouse across the street from a non-Hasidic residential neighborhood, against the local zoning code.

Some county residents have also complained about cultural issues in the regional Hasidic community, including hostility to outsiders. One complaint centers on the dependence on welfare benefits of the ultra-Orthodox.

Others have combined all of the above with anti-Semitism. That's been particularly acute on social media, but also in graffiti and political signs.

WHAT: Annual Rockland County Human Rights Symposium

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. March 25

WHERE: Cultural Arts Center at Rockland Community College, 145 College Road, Suffern, NY.

SEE:

• Cuomo Brings License Plate Readers To Rockland Jewish Community
• Monsey Rabbi Recalls Attack, Gives Blessing At Cuomo's Address
  
• More Federal Charges For Man Accused In Hanukkah Machete Attack
• County Lawmaker Calls For Summit On Rockland's Future
• Court Tells Controversial Ramapo Development To Start Over
• Illegal School Holding Classes In Stadium Funded Through Fraud
• Halting Real-Estate Solicitation In Chestnut Ridge
• New Report Shows NY Code Enforcement 'Hellscape' In The HV
• Firefighters, Officials Call for State to Intervene in Ramapo, Spring Valley Code Enforcement
• Spring Valley Building Inspector, Businessman Indicted
• Yeshivas Drop Fight Against Rockland Fire Inspections
• Rockland County Reports Progress Taking on Slumlords
• East Ramapo Parents Sue to Compel State to Act
• County Executive Throws Down the Gauntlet To Ramapo, Other Rockland Developers
• Political Signs with Anti-Semitic Undertones Appear in Rockland
• Video Compares Rockland County to Nazi Germany
• County GOP's "Storm" Video Unleashes Political Firestorm