Swastikas and Burning Pride Flags: Hate Crimes Spike in N.Y.

Someone please explain to me why burning the flag of the United States is freedom of expression while burning a pride flag is a hate crime?

Having dealt with anti-Semitism, I thought a few years ago that that kind of hate had been put behind in this society. Then came the political debacle of the last few years. Hate of any kind against any minority group is wrong and a kind of grotesque immorality. Stop doing onto others that which you find abhorrent!

This is vandalism. Given the high rate of hoaxes, most perpetrated by people seeking attention to their own imagined victim status, or money, or to persecute and libel political foes, the best thing to do is teach people, especially children, to get over this sensitivity to mere images. The appearance of these symbols will probably decline once there isn't such a reward system in place for being traumatized by them. And then we can get back to addressing real crime.

I grew up in one of the few Trump counties in Brooklyn. The conservative views in close proximity to extreme diversity resulted in at times bizarre experiences. We all believed in the great American melting pot, but I would get slurred in the playground and walking home. One time, the offender apologized the next day (he boasted about it at home and his mother made him). I've learned that it's dissonant but very easy to smile at your diverse neighbors at the block party and then vote for a racist president. So the spike in hate crimes is not surprise - these people have simply been given permission. We all coexist in New York like no other place on Earth. But much of it is transactional and it won't take much digging to get to the ugliness.

Years ago I read about studies showing that in schools adopting a policy where all children wear uniforms, acts of delinquency and destructive behavior decrease. I'm not sure why, but for me, there's an air of discipline and behavior standards evoked by uniforms. Even subliminally. These hate-crime increases seem to be products of the opposite effect of a dress code, an "anything goes" atmosphere. Which, let's face it, is regularly reflected by our president and some of his supporters. So for anyone with maybe more than the usual share of paranoid tendencies, it's a lot easier these days to act out on fears and feelings of hostility reflected on social media. Many of us have learned, over the past few years, that it isn't so much our laws that have put a cap on bad instincts - the norms coming from the bully pulpits have been central to building an increased tolerance of diversity. We need a course-correction, and fast.

As a native New Yorker I'll be quick to come to the defense of this city which for all its racial, religious, political and socioeconomic diversity, is by and large one of the most tolerant places on the planet -- which also is why it's such a hot spot for those who aren't as accepting and tolerant of different lifestyles. Of course, we attract quite a few of these hateful types from elsewhere, but we've also got quite of these hateful homegrown types of our own. Like Donald Trump. Who has done more to foment ill will with his divisive and virulent rhetoric than any other president in recent memory. That's why it's no surprise that there's more racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and Islamophobic attacks taking place across the country in ever greater numbers. It's also no surprise that we New Yorkers didn't overwhelmingly vote for him, and don't necessarily want him back after he leaves the White House. We survived 9/11. We'll survive this.

The Trump effect plain and simple. He does not care that his son in law and daughter are Jewish. If bigoted, race baiting, dog whistle Hitler like diatribes will help him with his base, he will do it.

The US is going mad. Why is there so much hate in a still rich country? For one thing, the heartland is gutted by policies that only help the rich. Downtowns shuttered in favor of chains. Wealth transferred out of the area. Globalism does the same thing. Trump gives a trillion dollar tax break to the very rich. A lot better use could have come from that trillion. But the rich own Trump. Trump blames everybody else but himself for problems. But his base is completely hooked by his 10,000 documented lies. Republicans are complicit in his scams. The US is going rapidly down the drain. Goodbye, beautiful, brave country. Hello racism, bigotry and hate. Beyond belief. Is this the dark side of rampant capitalism or is it mostly the Trump effect?

Make no mistake about it, the racism, bigotry and outright hostility toward asylum seekers of the president of the United States is fueling this rise in extremist hate. Our decline as a nation has been as swift as it is stunning.

Why is this not surprising? We have The Great Divider in the Oval Office, busily spreading his particular brand of hatred and intolerance every single day. It’s all becoming “Us” vs “Them” - if someone doesn’t look, walk, talk, and act just like us s/he is an Other, and therefore an Enemy. A very sad state of affairs. We used to be America the Beautiful, one nation under God (or whatever deity suits you, if you have one), with liberty and justice for ALL. How can we fix this mess?

A spike in crimes of violence are up across the country and it is only because we have a person who believes that there are good people in white supremacists groups and they will continue to rise until that person is voted out or thrown out of office.

I would like to trade our nazis and white nationalists and fascists for Central American refugees.

Let us all remember this President's full page letter with the following title in a huge font: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” This was published in many New York daily's and it pertained to the Central Park Five, young men falsely arrested on rape charges and who spent years in prison. Leaders set the tone. White nationalism is acceptable by the country's highest leader. White nationalism is profoundly anti-Semitic. To resist such leadership we must rise as one, e pluribus unum; if any of us aren't safe just because of the way were born, whether that be gay, trans, African American, South American, etc., then, in fact, none of us are safe and our Democracy, revolutionary at its core, our America, will be no longer.

The Republicans want me to get upset over immigration. I'm a lot more outraged over the Nazi infestation in the US. We defeated them 75 years ago. Why are they still around? Recently I saw someone on TV waving a rebel flag from the Civil War. I said he was threatening to overthrow the government, as the rebels in the Civil War did. Everybody who heard me was surprised. Don't they know who our historical enemies are?

The wave of anti-Jewish assaults in Brooklyn would be a much bigger story if the perpetrators were white men in MAGA hats instead of black teens, and if the victims were not Hasidic Jews. None of it quite fits the preferred media/leftist "white supremacy inspired by Trump" narrative, so you barely hear about it.

It is absolutely astonishing to see how many commentators attribute all the hate crimes to President Trump. Really? He single-handedly brought this about? Perhaps he helped this all blossom, but the roots were strong before he entered office. If you want to get rid of a weed . . .

I can’t believe the Right wing Republicans here attempting to absurdly claim that it’s Socialists and the Left who could just asc ugh be responsible for the anti Semitic and anti Gay acts of vandalism. The article states these acts have skyrocketed recently. What has changed? You have a racist bigot attacking anyone who is not white, “Christian”, and heterosexual. Anyone who has a brown skin is a rapist and murderer. White supremacists are fine people. He makes fun of people with disabilities. He even mocks short people. He is a promoter of hatred, period. Trump is not left wing. He is right wing, a conservative, a Republican. His base is right wing, and includes fascists, the kinds of people who have been attacking synagogues. To try and claim they are left wing is Neanderthal, uneducated, dumb stupidity of the worst kind.

I'm anti-Trump as much as the next guy, but I'm getting really tired of hearing people use Trump as the scapegoat for everyone else's hate, bias, misogyny, homophobia, racism & anti-Semitism (as a large number of these comments infer). Start blaming the people actually committing these crimes.

I wonder whether this vandalism might not be tied to fears of displacement, including fears of gentrification.

Is is so easy to complain and so easy to gripe, but the only real solution to hate is targeted action that combats hate by kindness, help, caring and positiveity. There has not been much of that lately that shows up in the news. Maybe the news could try to show something of the success stories that do happen when combating hate and bigotry. We are getting so much Trump related bad news, and we need something else now and then. Being fixated on Trump has its bad side. To grow the good side you need to feed it. We are feeding the bad side.

Let's call it what it is: Left wing anti-Semitism. Despite what DeBlaiso said, there ain't a lot of white supremacists in Brooklyn.

De Blasio stupidly stepped up to the Mic and pronounced that Anti Semitism in new York is strictly a " far right wing thing." None of the recent assaults on Orthodox Jews were committed by white men or people wearing MAGA hats. If the mayor of New York wants to solve the problem, he first needs to realize that the true nature of it and the fact that it exists on all sides of the political and cultural spectrums. Solving this problem should take precedence over making political points.

Disturbing trend. And, given the gravity of this story, a minor beef.....PLEASE, NYT editors! This is not a story about Hate Crimes in N.Y. It is about Hate Crimes in N.Y.C. Can you please remember there's a whole bunch of folks in a state called N.Y......just north of N.Y.C.? When will you editors get this right?

PS... besides we all understand that anyone who dares to criticize Rap or Hip Hop must be racist... just like Wynton Marsalis.

Is a “variety of motivations” the most informative analysis we can expect in the report? It just seems like something is being hidden from the readers (in plain sight).

No one can stop it. No one can stop it. No one can stop it. People cannot band together. People cannot band together People cannot band together. Things have gone amoc. Things have gone amoc. Things have gone amoc.

It all starts at the top. djt and the southern strategy that has been so successful for the republicans allows this hate to be spouted at the supper table and then private group gatherings and finally the public square. As income inequity worsens, people lose jobs, wages drop, school loans go unpaid, dissent boils up and 'the other' gets saddled with the blame. Typical right wing tactics. If it is not countered with the defeat of the republicans in 2020, the America First movement touting the need for authoritarian controls will once again raise its ugly head. It can happen here. It is happening here. Vote the un-Christian republicans out of office in 2020.

The ease within which both the Left [think Omar & Talin] or the Right [think Trump] have increased their hate and violence, I am sorry to say started with Obama and is furthered by Trump. If you remember, Obama had no trouble castigating political opponents in warlike terms and opponents of his style of government. Trump has done little to make it better, more likely worse. It is the Left that seems to be more vocal against Jews then the Right which has always had their share of crazies. It will take bipartisan opposition to extremism on both sides to suppress this hate. DeBlasio, in New York is not the answer

184 "hate" crimes so far in a city of over 8 million people? Seems like there's not much of a problem at all.

I see the predictable comment flow accusing Mr. Trump of feeding the increase in bias crime, to which I offer two observations: (1) In the video of the Orthodox Jewish gentleman’s hat being knocked off, the teenager responsible is clearly either Black or Latino (yes, I know “Latino” isn’t a race); and (2) 184 incidents through the the first half of the year is approximately one a day. NYC has a population of ~7.8 million, which rises by ~4million during the work week. The majority of the bias crimes are anti Semitism Does anyone doubt that if a young White teenager had knocked off a Black man’s hat that it would have immediately hit the headlines in every liberal media outlet as an example of how White racism and nationalism is on the rise in Trump’s America? (Note: this article is clearly implying that; too bad the video exists to refute that charge). The likelihood of anyone in NYC being the victim of a bias-related incident is lower than being struck by lightning (that’s an accurate statement, I just can’t lay out the analysis here because of limited space). And if they are, they are likely Jewish and the perpetrators are likely to be either teenagers (statistically likely to be non-White) or mentally disturbed. With such a vanishingly small number of bias incidents, even a large percentage increase doesn’t mean much. The numbers could just as easily drop next year, without meaning much either.

I’m sorry, but this is what happens when the mayor and the Manhattan DA proudly announce that they will stop prosecuting petty crimes like fare evasion and loitering because enforcing the law against criminals was “discriminatory.” I doubt that most of these vandals know who or what Trump is, but they do know that they can get away with all manner of “small” crimes in our increasingly anti-law enforcement city.

All the bias crimes reported in this article reflect a single thread -- the victims manifested their identity by their display of distinctive clothing, flags or signs. The perpetrators have been clearly motivated by bias to one degree or another but they are hardly the type of sophisticated haters who target individuals who don't wear their religious or sexual identity on their sleeve. It is good that the police are focusing more attention on this troubling rise of opportunistic acts of hatred. However, what we really need to worry about is the growing manifestations of hatred towards Jews, Muslims and gays who are not readily identifiable by their religious belief or origin or their sexual preference who are attacked on social media for their political speech or actions.

All of this because Donald John Trump, sworn upholder of The Constitution of these United States, condones, supports, aids & abets such behavior. While flags and crosses burn, Trump fiddles...

Interesting that so many posters here seem to think that Trump is to blame for anti-semitism in NYC. I guess NYC is now MAGA country.

Why this spike in hate, instilling fear of 'the other', and dividing us? Could it be related to the license that racist Trump has taken in promoting this climate of toxic bigotry? That these explosions of 'dehumanizing' others is the way to go? Our very survival, let alone justice and peace, depends on a majority of law-abiding folks speaking up and opposing these hordes.

I still can't believe how it seems as if some have never learned how to resolve their differences. One would think that with what we have today, hate crimes would be a thing of the past, but that doesn't seem to be the case. As an Israeli-born Jew, I can never understand why anti-Semitism continues to be big especially after what my group had to go through after the Holocaust. There are even some saying that they wish Hitler killed even more just because of the existence of Israel and that really offends and insults me. Meanwhile, others tend to justify the terrorist attacks done by both Hamas and Hezbollah in calling them the resistance to the Zionists when that isn't even the case. What's even worse is that there are even other minority groups that are attacking not just Israel but even other Jews as if we are the most hated group on Earth and everyone wants us dead. On a side note, I could never understand why the Salute to Israel Day Parade gets little to no coverage, but I guess that is partly due to anti-Semitism and anti-Israel biases. Nonetheless, I did enjoy marching in it as I did with Taglit Birthright Israel on Sunday and the parade was well attended despite having little to no coverage. For the record, I don't consider all of those that are anti-Israel to be anti-Semitic per say, but that doesn't mean that they aren't pro-terrorist especially if they don't condemn their actions against Israeli civilians and calling them out doesn't make me an Islamaphobe.

Nothing to see here, crime in NYC is at all time low, or at least that is what they tell us.

"teens, career criminals and the mentally ill" Yup. Consider the source.

This is going to tick off a lot of people, but the spread of the Hasidim, specifically the Satmars, to Lakewood NJ, Rockland/Orange/Sullivan Counties in NY — they have really contributed to a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. It’s not because of a fear of “others.” It’s because they’re horrible neighbors. They tear down open spaces to build urban centers, ignore local regulations and zoning, take mass welfare opportunities from the state (they marry under rabbinical code, not state, so they can effectively claim single parentage with ten kids in each family, pack the school boards to cater to their agenda, and on and on. The measles outbreak sure didn’t help either. Non-orthodox Jews and Christians are appalled, and it’s no surprise that tension will break out into violence at some point.

“I don’t look at this as a Jewish thing anymore,” she said. “I believe all good people should rise up and join us.” Sorry but it is "a Jewish thing". Anti-Semitism is solely about hatred of Jews and Israel. Regardless whether or not its caused by a measles outbreak or any other excuse. There is no excuse for singling out Jews as villains. And, Rabbi Katzman, you not only SHOULD be shocked and surprised you should not be a pacificist nor apologist because you believe the world is changing. The world is not changing. Jew hatred has been going on for centuries and you should be shocked and disgusted as the incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States continues to rise. Instead of saying you're not shocked or surprised you should be a great activist calling out anti-Semitism and demanding action, real action against those who perpetrate acts of hatred against Jews. Your outrage should be speaking volumes.

Mature adults know how to distinguish between the juvenile and the meaningful with respect to acts like speech vs crime. They can distinguish between the dull bigoted edge of the very many poorly informed people and the ideologically intent on real harm. Writers making a payday & organizations who gain from increased stats generally do not wish to make a distinction between unimportant speech and trivial actions because it is not in their own interest. But the difference exists still.

New York State has become social regressive. It will be a red state within a decade. Manhattan will be truly an island by political ideology and geography, a blue bubble or dot in a red state.

Really? In this entire article there is not one mention of Trump and his 'There are good people on both sides'? It's a simple matter of cause and effect.

Obviously this all starts at the top.