RHBA guest speaker educates crowd on hate crimes

The Richmond Hill Block Association (RHBA) welcomed Sgt. Ron Lynch of the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force Unit to its monthly meeting to educate locals on what constitutes a hate crime.
The meeting, open to the public, was held Wednesday, November 28 at the Block Association, 110-08 Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill.
RHBA President Simcha Waisman and Vice President Wendy Bowne joined Lynch, who debunked some common beliefs about hate crimes.
Most notably, Lynch told meeting attendees that simply using racially-biased language does not automatically constitute a hate crime.
If an attacker goes out of his or her way to commit a crime against someone because of his race, that would constitute a hate crime, explained Lynch, but if someone uses a racial epithet after an argument had already begun, that does not necessarily ensure a hate crime conviction.
Despite questions from listeners regarding specific cases, Lynch declined to comment on any ongoing investigations.
Waisman said Lynch was not invited to the meeting in response to the crimes committed in Howard Beach on Halloween night. In that incident, a group of local black and Hispanic males from Brooklyn attacked a group of white Howard Beach teens on Cross Bay Boulevard. Locals have been pushing for a hate crime conviction since the event took place.
“[Sgt. Lynch] was just here because we invited him,” said Waisman. “We like to invite him to our meetings once in awhile to inform people. People think hate crimes are something very different than they actually are, and we like to inform people the best we can.”
Waisman said he, too, felt more knowledgeable after the meeting, which he described as 45 minutes of “very intense educational information.”
“We wanted him to come because of a lot of different things we’ve been seeing in papers,” said Bowne. “Hate crimes have increased drastically in Queens lately, and it’s important for people to know what constitutes a hate crime.”
RHBA will not meet in December, but will pick up its monthly schedule again in January.