De Blasio: Anyone who terrorizes Jewish community will face justice

NY mayor orders increased police presence after spate of antisemitic attacks

By JTA, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Police are pictured in front of what according to local media is the apartment of Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the New York City truck attack in Paterson, New Jersey, U.S., November 1, 2017 (photo credit: REUTERS/ASHLEE ESPINAL)
Police are pictured in front of what according to local media is the apartment of Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the New York City truck attack in Paterson, New Jersey, U.S., November 1, 2017
(photo credit: REUTERS/ASHLEE ESPINAL)
In response to a week full of antisemitic attacks, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that an increased police presence would be deployed in the Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
There will also be an increase in police visits to synagogues and “other critical areas in the community,” tweeted de Blasio.
“Hate doesn’t have a home in our city,” he wrote. “Anyone who terrorizes our Jewish community WILL face justice.”
In the latest incident, police arrested a woman Friday morning who said she slapped three other women between the ages of 22 to 31 because she thought the women were Jewish, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters on Friday. The incident happened just past midnight in Crown Heights.
On Thursday, a 34-year-old Jewish woman was slapped in the face with a shopping bag by a 42-year-old woman in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. The 42-year-old used explicit language that targeted the Jewish woman, Harrison said Friday. The victim was with her 3-year-old child when the attack happened. The alleged perpetrator was also charged with committing a hate crime, according to the detective chief.
“That Jews cannot walk the streets of New York City without the fear of being attacked is outrageous,” the American Jewish Committee tweeted on Friday. “We need to wake the world up to rising antisemitism.”
Harrison added that police are investigating several possible antisemitic attacks that have occurred throughout New York City since December 13.
A Jewish man wearing a kippah was physically and verbally assaulted in Manhattan in one of three assaults against Jews in New York in just over a 24-hour period last week.
A Miami man was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime for an attack late Monday morning about two blocks from Grand Central Terminal, New York Police Sgt. Lee Jones told CNN.
The alleged assailant, 28-year-old Steven Jorge, reportedly punched the 65-year-old victim in the face, knocking him to the ground, and then kicked him repeatedly. He also allegedly yelled “F*** you, Jew” at the victim, who was looking at his cellphone when the attack began, CBS New York reported.
The attack was one of three assaults against Jews in New York in 24 hours, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Jewish man was assaulted by a group of teenagers in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. The teens followed the victim down the street, with one hitting him in the head and knocking him to the ground.
A police report was filed over the incident and the case was referred to the Hate Crimes Task Force, according to the local news website Crownheights.info. Surveillance cameras captured the incident, according to the site.
On Saturday night, The Jewish Agency released a statement, saying that “the rapid-fire pace of antisemitic incidents in New York is most certainly alarming. The Jewish Agency is closely monitoring the situation and commends Mayor de Blasio for his swift action in tackling this scourge of hatred. Chairman [Isaac] Herzog will be conducting special consultations in this regard with various bodies, including JFNA [the Jewish Federations of North America] and UJA-Federation of New York.”
Following the three attacks on Monday and Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the State Police hate crimes task force would help the NYPD in its investigations.
“I’ve said it before and I will say it again: We have absolutely zero tolerance for bigotry and hate, and we will continue to call it out whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head,” Cuomo said in a statement.
New York Councilman Chaim Deutsch tweeted: “It’s only the fifth night of Chanukah, but we’ve just had our sixth hate crime of the holiday.”
The uptick in antisemitic crimes came less than two weeks after the targeted attack and shootout at a kosher deli in Jersey City that left several dead, including a police officer.


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