Wednesday January 15 2020 STATEMENT OF JOHN J MILLER DEPUTY COMMISSIONER INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT HEARING ON “CONFRONTING THE RISE OF ANTI-SEMITIC DOMESTIC TERRORISM” BEFORE THE U S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE COUNTERTERRORISM 310 CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15 2020 Good afternoon Chair Rose Ranking Member Walker and members of the subcommittee I am John Miller Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism for the New York City Police Department NYPD On behalf of Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio I am pleased to testify before your subcommittee today to discuss the disturbing rise in bias crimes especially anti-Semitic violence as well as the NYPD’s efforts to reverse this trend An attack on a member of a particular community targeted because of their race religion nationality gender or sexual orientation is an attack on all New Yorkers New York City is the world’s epicenter of diversity and stands as an example of how distinct cultures religions and nationalities can exist side by side learning from one another and enriching each other One of the core pillars of our city’s strength is the kaleidoscope of people who call this city home Hate and intolerance have no place in our society and attacks premised on hate and intolerance weigh on the collective consciousness of not only the targeted community but the entirety of the New York City community New York honors those historically persecuted for their race origin beliefs and identities and at its core the NYPD exists to protect and serve every individual and community especially the most vulnerable It is always heartening to watch New Yorkers of every race and creed come together in the spirit of unity after every hateful tragedy to demonstrate to those who wish to divide us that their hate only makes us stronger and makes us fight harder Time and time again the people of our city have not permitted New York to fall into the darkness of hate and division Unfortunately last year in New York City we saw a 20% increase in hate crime incidents over 2018 and a 26% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes which comprised a majority of the total hate crimes in our city We’ve all heard by now of the brutal machete attack in Monsey New York just miles north of the city which injured five people peacefully celebrating Hanukkah and the savage attack and shootout in Jersey City which killed six including a police officer turning a quiet neighborhood into a battle scene for an afternoon But these days it seems like every news cycle carries yet another story of violence targeted at Jewish New Yorkers including children 1 Wednesday January 15 2020 What are we doing about it First off we are ramping up our uniformed presence at sensitive locations throughout the city particularly in neighborhoods that have been targeted by anti-Semitic hate The first line of defense and our most valuable asset in the fight against violent extremism is our highly trained dedicated and diverse personnel who collectively make our Department stronger The NYPD has worked tirelessly over the years to stand up a force of officers which reflect the city they are charged with protecting and we are succeeding In a majority-minority city the Department is now a majority-minority force with each subsequent graduating academy class reinforcing this trend We have members of the service hailing from 161 countries and 22 382 members speak more than one language with 168 languages represented among them The Department also encourages and supports its myriad fraternal organizations which build solidarity among our officers and most of which have been in existence for many decades We also expend significant resources to ensure those who commit crimes motivated by hate are apprehended and brought to justice The numbers bear this out Last year hate crime apprehensions increased by 38% for the most serious offenses criminal possession of a weapon criminal mischief and swastika graffiti robbery assault grand larceny murder and attempted murder This is the job of every member of the service but the focal point of our effort lies in our Detective Bureau’s Hate Crimes Task Force Its personnel are officers and analysts who are specially trained to identify and investigate hate-based crime and it is the largest such municipal unit in the nation The NYPD of course saw the disturbing upward trend of violent bias crimes early on and last month we formed the Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism REME unit within our Intelligence Bureau This new unit has about 25 NYPD personnel working side-by-side with members of the New Jersey New York and Pennsylvania state police and agents from federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives REME is specifically dedicated to investigating and stamping out violent bias crimes in and around the city before they occur by applying the same intelligence gathering techniques we use to thwart attacks by ISIS and al Qaeda and the lone wolves they inspire and has already opened dozens of these investigations in the short time since it was formed REME consolidates and streamlines efforts against this threat landscape and facilitates engagement within the Department and with our federal state local and private sector partners The anti-Semitic and hateful violence we see in surrounding communities inevitably touches on New York City itself Because of this whenever there is a high profile incident anywhere in the country or the world such as the Pittsburgh and Christchurch shootings the NYPD goes on high alert and further increases our visibility around houses of worship and customizes a deployment plan to discourage potential copy-cats The value of our collaborative efforts to guard against violence imported into New York cannot be undersold Jersey City is right on our doorstep The upstate attacker was arrested by our officers in Harlem but has no known connections to the city Why he was there we do not yet know What his intentions were we do not yet know but we are working tirelessly with our partners in these jurisdictions and with our federal partners to find out The Proud Boys are not from New York City but it apparently presented too attractive a target for them to ignore when they decided to 2 Wednesday January 15 2020 intimidate and inflict mob violence The white supremacist neo-Nazi group Patriot Front have taken their recruiting efforts to New York City and just last week they brazenly hung an antiimmigrant banner off an overpass in Brooklyn The same freedom and diversity that are New York’s strengths are the same reasons that it is the number one target for violent foreign and domestic extremists Finally as part of the NYPD’s holistic approach to combatting hate crimes Commissioner Shea announced last week that hate crimes will be included in our CompStat statistical analysis For those of you who are not familiar with CompStat it is the data-driven crime analysis system pioneered by the NYPD in the 90s which enables us to strategically target our resources to battle crime trends It will be an ongoing process to make sure we get it right but including hate crimes in CompStat is long overdue Anti-Semitism manifests itself in many forms from the well-organized group to the lone deluded individual and everything in between Anti-Semitism in all its forms however is steeped in ignorance and bred of muddled and incoherent conspiracy theories and while this has been the case for quite some time it is more easily spread and consumed these days because of social media For these reasons a lasting solution to bigotry and hatred will never be grounded solely on law enforcement and heightened security That will only be achieved when every citizen works collectively to educate each other and to reinforce our shared values of tolerance and unity New York City and the NYPD will continue to be at the forefront of this movement Thank you again for this opportunity to testify today I am happy to answer any questions you may have 3