GRAVESEND PARK, Brooklyn (WABC) — An investigation is underway after 57 swastikas were found at a children’s playground in Gravesend Park, Brooklyn.
They were painted on playground slides and on the wall of a handball court in red, yellow and blue paint with other antisemitic vandalism.
The NYPD says this is being investigated as a hate crime.
It’s described as aggravated harassment and police responded just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday to find all this hateful graffiti. No arrests have been made.
It’s the second day someone targeted this park.
By the afternoon, it was no longer a crime scene, just a cleanup scene as the Parks Department crew members use paint thinner to get it off and light grey paint to cover it up.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the display of antisemitism “sickening” in a post on social media.
“I am sickened by this antisemitic vandalism in Borough Park. Antisemitism has no place in our city, and I stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish New Yorkers who were targeted. My administration is working closely with the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force as well as our Parks Department, and those responsible will be investigated and held accountable,” Mamdani said.
Other elected leaders and the ADL are also condemning this incident.
“To have it happen two days in a row and to have it happen with such ferocity on the second day, with more than triple the number of swastikas on the second day? Really, really awful,” said ADL Director of New York and New Jersey, Scott Richmond.
The local community board says the culprit needs to be caught and brought to justice.
“They got away with it once and tried to get away with it again,” said Rabbi Edgar Gluck of Community Board 12.
Richmond said Gravesend Park is one of the most densely packed neighborhoods of Holocaust survivors in New York City, making this act, he says, “particularly offensive.”
“This country went to war against the Nazis,” Richmond said. “400,000 Americans lost their lives fighting against the Nazis. This isn’t just a symbol that should be offensive to the Jewish community. This is something that every New Yorker should be angry about.”
Gluck is a son of survivors.
“This is something that’s literally reminding us of Nazi Germany,” Gluck said.
The neighborhood has plenty of cameras around the park but police haven’t put out any pictures of who they’re looking for yet.
Gluck says whoever is responsible needs to be fully prosecuted and given an education.
“That’s if they knew what they were doing,” he said. “The only thing they know is they’re doing something antisemitic. Exactly what a Nazi swastika stands for, or Heil Hitler. I don’t even know if they know the history.”
Last Friday, City Council Speaker Julie Menin released a five-point plan to combat antisemitism.
Menin reacted to the incident on social media.
The Anti-Defamation League tracks antisemitic incidents and asks people to report them on their website and to law enforcement.
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