As the NYPD Hate Crimes unit, as well as the FBI and Justice Department, investigates the noose found outside a Columbia professor's office, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly commented about the school's cooperation. Apparently the school only turned over surveillance videos after the NYPD provided a subpoena - three days after the noose was found on Teachers College Professor Madonna Constatine's office door knob. Columbia said that educational institutions require subpoenas, because they are dealing with......

The police are investigating a hate crime at Columbia University's Teachers College after a noose was found on the door of a black professor. Teachers College president Susan Fuhrman issued a statement:The police were here this morning because a hangman's noose was discovered on the office door of one of our African American faculty members. The incident has been reported to the New York City Police Department (Detectives Bureau of Manhattan) and is under active......

Jack Rhodes, the man suspected of robbing and beating elderly woman in Queens, was indicted yesterday on 35 charges of burglary, assault, robbery, and, yes, hate crimes. The NY State Hate Crimes Act has a provision that allows hate crime charges to be filed if the defendant has selected a victim because they are old. Queens DA Richard Brown said, “In just over nine weeks, the defendant is alleged to have beaten and robbed three......

Last fall, three men were charged with hate crimes in the October death of Michael Sandy. Prosecutors charged that lya Shurov, Anthony Fortunato, and John Fox had gone to a gay chat room, lured Sandy to Plum Beach, and then robbed and beat him. Sandy ran into the Belt Parkway and died from injuries sustained when he was hit by traffic. Sandy had been in a coma for six days; family took him off a......

Three men were indicted yesterday for murder and attempted robbery as hate crimes in the Belt Parkway death of Michael Sandy. Ilya Shurov, Anthony Fortunato, and John Fox are accused of going to a gay chat room and asking Sandy to meet them at Plum Beach off the Belt Parkway. There, the three men are suspected of robbing and beating Sandy, who then ran to the highway and was hit by a car. Sandy lay......

The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating why 28 year old black man ran into the Belt Highway, where he was hit by a car. Eyewitnesses say that two white men "struggled with" and "forced" Michael Sandy into traffic on Sunday night. Given that Sandy's race and the fact he was in Plumb Beach, a gay cruising area off the highway, the police have been investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. The......

When a Queens District Attorney's Office press release (PDF) actually names a defendant "Natasha Munchkin Marks," you know the case will be good. It seems that a petite 18 year old (now 20) Marks would flirt with men ages 85 and 79 outside stores and somehow managed to extract thousands from them. From 85 year old Louis Bruno, she managed to borrow $249,000 for fake illnesses and emergencies - and then took power of attorney......