A 571: Establishes the bystander protection act which increases the punishment for an offense when a member of the public is harmed, but the intended target is a public official.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 571 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. WALSH, MORINELLO, BRABENEC, TAGUE, HAWLEY, GALLA- HAN, SAYEGH -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ANGELINO, DeSTEFANO, DURSO, MANKTELOW -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the bystander protection act The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "bystander protection act". 3 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 55.15 to read as 4 follows: 5 § 55.15 Bystander protection. 6 1. Any offense which was committed against a person during the commis- 7 sion of another offense as set forth in article one hundred twenty, one 8 hundred twenty-one, one hundred twenty-five, one hundred thirty-five, 9 two hundred forty or four hundred ninety of this chapter, where a public 10 official is the intended target of such offense, shall be punishable by 11 the next highest classification of offense for which the person commit- 12 ting such offense was convicted. 13 2. As used in this section, the term "public official" shall mean: 14 (i) the governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller or attorney gener- 15 al; 16 (ii) members of the state legislature; 17 (iii) state officers and employees including: 18 (A) heads of state departments and their deputies and assistants other 19 than members of the board of regents of the university of the state of 20 New York who receive no compensation or are compensated on a per diem 21 basis, 22 (B) officers of state departments, boards, bureaus, divisions, commis- 23 sions, councils or other state agencies, EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02795-01-5 
 A. 571 2 1 (C) members or directors of public authorities, other than multi-state 2 authorities, public benefit corporations and commissions at least one of 3 whose members is appointed by the governor, and employees of such 4 authorities, corporations and commissions; 5 (iv) United States senators and representatives; 6 (v) municipal officers and employees including an officer or employee 7 of a municipality, whether paid or unpaid, including members of any 8 administrative board, commission or other agency thereof and in the case 9 of a county, shall be deemed to also include any officer or employee 10 paid from county funds. No person shall be deemed to be a municipal 11 officer or employee solely by reason of being a volunteer fireman or 12 civil defense volunteer, except a fire chief or assistant fire chief; 13 and 14 (vi) any state-paid full-time judge or justice of the unified court 15 system. 16 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed- 17 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.