Today Is 'Day Out Against Hate'

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Reverend Al Sharpton are organizing and participating in today's citywide Day Out Against Hate.

"The best way to fight hate and to try and turn that trend in the other direction is for people to stand up and speak out against hate," Ms. Quinn said yesterday. The event, which will include forum discussions and meetings with Holocaust survivors at schools throughout the city, was announced after a string of high profile hate crime incidents, including the hanging of a noose on the door of an African American Columbia professor. Police officials said last month that there had been a 20% climb in hate crime complaints from the previous year.