From now on, it will be a felony to display a noose in New York City, as Gov. David A. Paterson has signed the law yesterday. Those who get convicted can be sentenced up to four years in prison.

According to The New York Times, the governor made a written statement saying that it was “sad” people nowadays should have a law against this mean of intimidation and harassment. “But it is a reality,” Paterson added and certain measures must be taken.

The problem became more stringent last year when a noose was hung on the door of a professor at Columbia University. After that incident, several similar actions were discovered outside a post office near ground zero in Lower Manhattan and in Long Island.

The law adds these actions of displaying a noose to harass or threaten someone based on their race, gender or other types of bias to an aggravated harassment law that includes swastikas or burning crosses.

According to The New York Times, in Jena, La. six black teenagers were charged with beating a white student after nooses were found hanging from a tree in a high school campus. It is known that the noose is a symbol of the lynching in the Jim Crow South.

Paterson, the state’s first black governor, said the law isn’t harsh enough and said that the Legislature needs to toughen it.

He also asks for the Legislature to remove a provision that elevates the crime to a felony when someone displays the noose without permission from the property owner.