Man Charged With Hate Crime for Allegedly Drawing Swastika on Lee Zeldin Campaign Sign

Brittany Bernstein
·2 min read
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Police arrested a Long Island man earlier this week after he allegedly drew a swastika on a campaign lawn sign for New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who is Jewish. 

Vincent Mckie, 41, is accused of defacing a campaign sign near his Huntington home on Saturday. In addition to the swastika, Mckie allegedly painted “Gambino” and “187” on the sign, potentially in reference to the California penal code for murder, according to NBC New York.

“In the US, we settle our scores at the ballot box, & this type of raw hate must never have any home in NY or the US,” Zeldin wrote in a tweet before Mckie was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime and criminal mischief on Tuesday.

Zeldin thanked the Suffolk County Police Department and its “top-notch Hate Crimes Unit” on Wednesday for “making a swift arrest in this case.”

“Unfortunately, for so many New Yorkers — Asian-Americans, Sikh-Americans, Jewish Americans and many others — raw hate has become all too commonplace,” Zeldin said in a statement to Newsday. “We must continue to work together to crush this hate wherever it rears its ugly head.”

Mckie’s arrest came on the same day Zeldin won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary. Zeldin, a four-term congressman who represents New York’s first Congressional district, beat out three competitors to become his party’s nominee, including Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Westchester County executive Rob Astorino; and businessman Harry Wilson.  

Zeldin, an attorney and Iraq War veteran who has represented eastern Long Island since 2015, will face off against New York governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, in the general election in November.

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