NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 05: A man walks past a subway stop in Manhattan two days after a man was pushed to his death in front of a train on December 5, 2012 in New York City. The incident was caught by a photographer and has since raised questions as to why someone didn’t help the man before the train struck him. The New York City subway system, with 468 stations in operation, is the most extensive public transportation system in the world. It is also one of the world’s oldest public transit systems, with the first underground line of the subway opening on October 27, 1904. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) A swastika fashioned out of various flyers was posted on a wall near an elevator at a New York City subway stop on Dec. 31.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) released a video on Jan. 14 of a man taping the swastika onto the wall at the 96th Street station in Manhattan. The flyers used in the swastika were Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) service advisory flyers, The Hill reported.
WATCH: NYPD releases a video of man plastering swastika inside a subway station elevator. #Antisemitism pic.twitter.com/zTSs0UYroI
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) January 16, 2020
The MTA said in a statement to NBC New York, “Anti-Semitism in all its forms is repugnant and seeing the use of vandalized Transit property to incite hatred is appalling.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, condemned the swastika in a statement.
“I’m disgusted by the report of an individual posting a swastika made out of flyers in a subway station in Manhattan recently,” Cuomo said. “Anti-Semitism is a scourge afflicting this nation, and it must be stamped out.”
Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey Northeast Division Vice President Evan Bernstein said in a statement to the Journal, “Very disturbing to see yet another reported swastika incident in New York City. Especially in such a public location as a busy subway station. We cannot allow this normalization of hate.”
NYPD data released in November found that complaints of anti-Semitic hate crimes on the New York City subway rose 162% from 2018 to 2019.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.