An alarming streak of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city will not be tolerated, New York City Mayor de Blasio said Sunday, promising a stronger police presence in Jewish communities.
Three men attacked two Jewish teenagers in Brooklyn on Saturday night, punching them, menacing them with a baseball bat and yelling anti-Semitic slurs, according to NYPD. They put one of the teens in a chokehold.
Prior to that, the trio drove to a Borough Park synagogue, where they yelled slurs at several Jewish men, banged on the synagogue’s door and smashed a car mirror before taking off. They were still being sought Sunday.
“Anti-Semitic attacks will not be tolerated here in New York City,” the mayor said in a meeting with Jewish leaders at Brooklyn’s 66th Precinct stationhouse. “We will stomp out anti-Semitism anywhere we find it.”
The hateful incidents followed tense confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators last Thursday in Times Square, where a pro-Israel protester suffered a brutal beating.
Hate crimes were up 71% as of May 16, compared with the same time period last year, according to the NYPD. Anti-Semitic incidents were up 5%.
“The NYPD will be out in force in Jewish communities to protect the people of these communities,” de Blasio said.
Members of the NYPD’s strategic response group — which is deployed for everything from terrorist threats to violent crimes — were headed to Jewish communities, said Chief of Department Rodney Harrison.
Mobile field forces will drive around those neighborhoods using turret lights, he added.
The NYPD declined to specify the number of extra cops heading to Jewish neighborhoods, citing “security reasons.”
“Anti-Semitism has to be stopped immediately,” Borough Park Rabbi Bernard Freilich said alongside de Blasio. “It’s just out of control.”
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