Legislature Urges Curran To Sign Police Protection Bill

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — The Republican majority of the Nassau County Legislature is pressuring County Executive Laura Curran to sign a bill that was passed on Monday that would make police officers and other first responders a protected class under the county's human rights legislation, and would make offenses committed against them hate crimes.

Prior to Monday's contentious meeting, Curran's office said that she would listen to the public comment at the meeting before making a decision. The Legislature passed the bill 12-6 and sent it to Curran. But Curran still has not signaled whether or not she would sign the bill. Instead, she sent it to the office of state Attorney General Letitia James for review.

“I’m proud of the dedicated first responders who’ve made Nassau the safest County in America, and I will continue to stand against defunding the police," Curran said in a statement. "My administration is committed to protecting the brave men and women of law enforcement who keep us safe. There were many speakers today who questioned this legislation. Now that it has been passed by the Legislature, I will be making an inquiry to the attorney general’s office to review and provide some advice.”

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello, the Republican head of the Legislature, said Curran should either sign or veto the bill instead of waiting for James' office to offer an opinion — a process that could take a long time.

"The county executive is obviously looking for a pretext to veto the bill,” said Nicolello "The county executive should take a stand one way or another. The residents of Nassau elected her, not the NYS attorney general, to make these decisions."

Supporters of the bill say it's designed to protect police officers and other first-responders from harassment, menacing and assault by allowing them to sue citizens in civil court. However, opponents say it elevates police officers and first responders above the citizens they are sworn to protect, and would have a chilling effect on protest and free speech in Nassau County.

During an hours-long hearing on the bill on Monday with testimony from dozens of residents, the only people to speak in favor of the bill were four law enforcement officer union representatives. Everyone else urged the Legislature to not pass the bill.

Under the law, an officer could sue a citizen for harassment, and the citizen would not be able to prove in court that they were not targeting the officer because of their profession. That is not something that is offered to minorities when they are the victim of hate crimes — they have to prove that they were targeted because of who they are.

Both Representatives Kathleen Rice and Tom Suozzi, Democrats who represent the majority of Nassau County, also voiced their opposition to the bill.

“I support policies to protect our police officers and other first responders. But it is wrong to codify into law a chosen profession as an immutable human trait in the same manner we classify race, nationality, gender, disability, and sexual orientation," Rice said. “This bill violates the spirit of the County’s Human Rights Law. And I have serious questions about its legality."

"...After reviewing bill text and reading the public comments, I believe it is wrong tand legally questionable to codify a profession under the county Human Rights Law. The intent of which is to protect discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, sex, gender and disability," said Suozzi. "While we should all support and value our police officers and first responders, I urge Nassau County officials to explore other and more appropriate ways to do so."

Proponents of the bill point to legislation that passed the Legislature unanimously in 2019 that named first responders a protected class under the county's Human Rights law. That was signed into law by Curran.

However, this new bill gives first responders the right to sue in civil court for damages of up to $50,000, and also removes the need for them to prove that they were targeted because they were first responders. Instead, the bill has an "irrebuttable presumption" clause that says if the first responder was in uniform, then the act committed against them was a hate crime, no matter what the defendant says.

Such "irrebuttable presumption" is not offered to other classes of protected citizens in the county's Human Rights law. Instead, they have to prove in court that a crime against them was done because of their status as a protected individual.

"Police officers, if they are harassed, they can arrest people. They can use the law. That's why we have legislation," said Tracy Edwards, regional director of the Long Island chapter of the NAACP, at Monday's meeting. "We have wonderful police officers who can protect themselves. They do not need to have a human rights law to put them above all others. And that's what you are doing. You are taking that chosen, sacred profession and you are trying to put it above all others."