Although there have been many incidents of white people calling 911 on Black people who are merely trying to live, the catalyst for proposing such legislation came after Amy Cooper; a white woman called the police on Chris Cooper, a Black male.
In the past year, we have seen many instances throughout both New York State and the country of people calling 911 on black people who are going about their everyday lives, only to be interrupted by someone calling the police for reasons that range from caution to suspicious inkling to all-out hatred.”
Under the proposed legislation, a person making a false police report that is motivated by a perception of a person’s race, color, nationality, sexual orientation, or disability will be classified as a bias-motivated crime, punishable by one to five years in prison.
Oregon and Washington have already passed bills that would criminalize calling the police when people unlawfully discriminate against other citizens and report a false crime.
Illinois has current chokehold legislation enacted in 2015 that bans the use of police chokeholds but still allows certain types of holds to the neck, but the holds are not “intended to reduce the intake of air.”
