Police are searching for a man who spray-painted a swastika on the street in a predominantly Jewish area of Crown Heights over the weekend.
Surveillance video released Monday shows a man wearing a backpack and gray sweater, walking with another person. The vandal is believed to have spray-painted the symbol with white paint at around 6 p.m. on Saturday on Montgomery Street near Brooklyn Avenue. The suspect painted the backward swastika in a neighborhood where many LubavitchJews live,and then ran west on Montgomery Street, police said.
Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone reported the incident and tweeted a photo and message Sunday morning. “BREAKING: Swastika spray painted on Montgomery St in heart of Jewish Crown Heights. Note: This is not a first here.” The swastika was covered by a traffic cone, but later in the afternoon, a self-proclaimed anarchist with the Twitter handle @AngryMarxistJew, tagged over the symbol with a video of the act and warning: “Nazi scum be afraid.”
BREAKING: Swastika spray painted on Montgomery St in heart of Jewish Crown Heights. Note: This is not a first here (h/t @HirshelTzig ) pic.twitter.com/u6RAMY4NRn
— Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) November 13, 2016
There have been at least five incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti in the area during the last three years, in apartment building stairwells, street signs, on a sidewalk and in an alley, according to news reports.
The mayor’s office condemned the act and all “acts of violence in our beautifully diverse city” on Sunday on Twitter. The incident is being investigated by the city’s Hate Crimes Task force.
