NYPD on alert after string of anti-Semitic hate crimes
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that the NYPD will increase its presence in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg following a string of anti-Semitic attacks in recent days. CBS New York reports there were six incidents apparently motivated by hate in the city this week, the latest of which was reported Friday morning in Crown Heights.
The police department's hate crimes task force is investigating the attacks, which came during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
On Twitter, de Blasio vowed that anyone who terrorizes the Jewish community will face justice. He said officers would also increase patrols at houses of worship.
"Anti-Semitism is an attack on the values of our city — and we will confront it head-on," de Blasio said.
In Friday's attack, CBS New York reports a woman in Brooklyn slapped three Jewish women in the head and shouted anti-Semitic slurs at them. The suspect, identified by police as 30-year-old Tiffany Harris, is facing charges of hate crime harassment and assault.
Another attack Thursday in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood also led to an arrest, the station reports. Police charged a 42-year-old homeless woman with a hate crime after police say she yelled anti-Semitic slurs and hit a 34-year-old Jewish woman in the face with a grocery bag full of items. The victim, who reportedly suffered bruising and swelling, was with a 3-year-old child at the time of the attack.
On Tuesday, in an incident captured on surveillance video, CBS New York reports a 56-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was walking on a sidewalk in Crown Heights when he was attacked from behind by at least four people.
The same day, in the same neighborhood, police say a 25-year-old man was walking when a group started cursing and yelling slurs at him from across the street. When the man took out his cell phone to record the group, police say one of them threw an unknown liquid at him and fled, CBS New York reports.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is reportedly looking to question a man seen in surveillance video during that incident.
Federal hate crime data released last month by the FBI indicates that once again in 2018, the Jewish community was more likely to be the target of hate crimes than any other religious group. Of crimes motivated by religious bias, most of the incidents, 57.8%, were anti-Jewish, according to the FBI.
"Enough is enough; now is the time for society to come together in rejection of this hate and for public officials and community leaders to speak up, lead by example, and demand meaningful change to protect the Jewish community," Bernstein's statement said.
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