The disease of hate in Gaza spreads to Times Square

Hate Crime

While I watch the media coverage of the violence in the Middle East, I once again observe the fallout spread to my home in New York City.

New York has always been an International city.?New York houses the United Nations and numerous Foreign Embassies. People from every corner of the world come to live, work, and raise families in New York. We are a city comprised of diverse faiths, cultures, and attitudes.

I am saddened and disappointed to see my city importing the fighting in the Middle East to the streets of New York. The entire week has been filled with media accounts of people openly and without fear of consequence, attaching Jews. These are people dining in restaurants or just walking down city streets. I watch these anti-Semitic attacks also occurring in the city of Los Angeles.

I have spent a great deal of my Law Enforcement career dealing with hate and the effects of hatred. I have seen hateful words become hateful acts of violence. I have investigated numerous arsons of religious institutions. These arsons have occurred to churches, mosques, and synagogues alike. However, the lion's share of these crimes has been and continues to target the Jewish communities.

I was part of the investigative team who made the very first arrests under the New York State Hate Crime Law. We arrested four young men who attempted to set fire to a synagogue in the Riverdale section of Bronx, New York. These young men had recently attended a protest rally in Times Square. The rally was in response to their accusation that an Israeli Soldier had shot and killed a child in Palestine. Shortly after returning from this rally, they decided to act. They made Molotov cocktails and attacked a synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.

The thing that stood out in my mind so vividly was how quickly these young men, with little or no criminal records, became radicalized to the point of action. They had adopted the mob mentality long after the mob had gone home.

Yesterday a cease-fire was declared in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We can only hope that the suspension of violence in the Middle East will result in a cease-fire on our streets.??