Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is pressing the Federal Communications Commission to issue a special waiver that would help track down the people who made bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers across his home state of New York.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday, Schumer, a Democrat, said local police are unable to trace the source of the anonymous calls made to JCCs in Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester that led to evacuations. The New York threats, made on Monday, were part of a wave of simultaneous calls to JCCs in states across the nation. There have been over 100 threats made to Jewish centers since the beginning of the year.
Schumer said the bomb threats have been harrowing to the Jewish community.
“The damage from these threats is far-reaching, often disrupting our classrooms and requiring the deployment of bomb squads and other SWAT equipment,” Schumer wrote. “As you can imagine, these attacks have traumatized the Jewish community and struck fear in homes across the country.”
Schumer’s letter presses the FCC on what actions it plans to take in response to the threatening calls, which he described as “swatting” and asked if it would consider allowing JCCs to trace the call information of those who are making the threats.
The senator pointed to a special waiver granted to the District of Middletown, N.Y., last year after a similar spat of threatening calls. He said that waiver, granted by then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, helped school and law enforcement officials better coordinate in their effort to respond to the swatting calls.
An FCC spokesman wouldn’t say exactly whether the agency would take up Schumer on his request for a special waiver, but did tell the Washington Examiner that chairman Pai is “very concerned” about the bomb threats made to JCCs around the country and is looking into ways it can help put a stop to the incidents.
“These threats have instilled fear and disrupted lives throughout the United States, and Chairman Pai condemns such anti-Semitic acts in the strongest possible terms,” the spokesman said. “The FCC is actively exploring what steps the FCC can take quickly to help Jewish Community Centers and law enforcement combat these threats.”
