Swastikas, Trump graffiti deface Brooklyn Heights playground

Since election, hate incidents multiply in NYC

November 19, 2016 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Parks Department is scrubbing multiple swastikas and the message “Go Trump!” off the play equipment at Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights. The ugly graffiti was just one of several incidents in the city since the presidential election last week. Photo courtesy of state Sen. Daniel Squadron

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The Parks Department is scrubbing multiple swastikas and the message “Go Trump!” off the play equipment at little Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights.

A constituent noticed the hateful scrawl on Friday and called state Sen. Daniel Squadron’s office, along with the NYPD and the Parks Department.

Police are investigating the incident. [UPDATE here.]

Squadron, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Councilmembers Stephen Levin and Brad Lander and other officials and leaders were set to come together at the park, located on State Street between Columbia Street and Willow Place, at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

The ugly graffiti was just one of a number of incidents in the city since the presidential election last week, unexpectedly won by billionaire Donald Trump.

Dr. Debbie Almontaser, founder of the Kahlil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn and president of the board of the Muslim Community Network, told the Brooklyn Eagle on Friday that since the election, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had received 11 reports of bias or hate crimes against Muslims in New York City. She speculated that many more are unreported.

Last Friday, for example, a woman was waiting in her car at a traffic light near Neptune Avenue in Brooklyn when a man walked up and began banging on the windshield. Almontaser said the woman didn’t wait for the light to turn but quickly drove off.

In Queens, Almontaser said, a white couple riding a bus started yelling at a Muslim woman to “take that thing off your head,” referring to her head scarf.

“This is America, you can’t wear that here,” Almontaser was told the couple said to the woman. No one on the bus interfered, she said.

Not all hate crimes target Muslims. In Boerum Hill last Saturday night a Trump supporter reportedly punched a woman in the face after overhearing her support for Hillary Clinton. The attack took place at the popular French restaurant Bar Tabac.

“To the tough guy who assaulted a female patron of ours on Saturday night over a political conversation: Once the law is done with you, do not come back to Bar Tabac (this includes your partner),” Bar Tabac posted on their Facebook page.

Police are also looking into an incident in Queens targeting black residents of a housing project.

According to the New York Post, cops are also looking for attacker accused of choking a man who was wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat on the subway last Friday.

Families in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO took a stand for love on Wednesday, gathering in Brooklyn Bridge Park with their kids, folk singers and crafts.

Mom Jennifer, attending with her daughter Myela, told the Brooklyn Eagle, “We are here to promote love and appreciation and diversity and all the things that are missing nowadays. Which is a bit of a loss, because I have a 3-year-old girl and this is not necessarily the world I want her living in.”

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said in a statement last week, “We urge anyone who believes they have been a victim of or a witness to a hate crime to call our Hate Crimes Hotline at 718-250-4949.”