Text size:

Speaker Quinn declares war on hate crime wave

12:02 PM EDT, November 1, 2007

NEW YORK - City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has declared a day against hate to counter a 20 percent rise in bias crimes.

Quinn, who is openly gay, says she wants to send a message "that we will not tolerate hate of any kind in our city."

Quinn says the city is organizing a series of events on Nov. 29 that will bring together Holocaust survivors with school children as well as people of various races and nationalities to discuss crimes that have been reported recently.

On Wednesday, a Columbia University professor, who is Jewish, discovered a painted swastika on her office door. Last month, a noose was found on the door of another Columbia professor. Nooses have also been sound on Long Island, and in other parts of the country.