Democratic State Sen. Jesse Hamilton recently announced his plan to introduce the bill, which was inspired by an incident where a woman called the cops on him while he was campaigning in his district. Hamilton, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, Crown Heights, and Flatbush, said he was speaking with voters in his district earlier this month when a woman called the cops on him for no reason.
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"I support Trump, and I see the difference between Democrat and Republican — and I see the difference between you and Trump," the woman said to Hamilton according to The Prospect Heights Patch. After some more back-and-forth, the unidentified woman called 911 on Hamilton. But upon arriving on the scene, the cops had to explain to her that Hamilton had done nothing wrong.
The name of the bill will be the 911 Anti-Discrimination Bill and will aim "to combat the misuse of 911 and the many 'living while black' incidents that have occurred, including the 'campaigning while black' incident that happened to me last Thursday," Hamilton wrote on Facebook.
Speaking with The Patch, Hamilton explained the legislation in detail.
"That's gonna be a hate crime," Hamilton said. "This pattern of calling the police on black people going about their business and participating in the life of our country has to stop."
"Living while black is not a crime. But making a false report, especially motivated by hate, should be," he said in a separate interview with The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. "Our laws should recognize that false reports with hateful intent can have deadly consequences."
