Pro-Palestinian vandals attack another Brooklyn Heights home

Red paint, broken glass at Columbia University exec’s co-op

August 8, 2024 Mary Frost

The columns, sidewalk and vestibule of this Orange Street co-op were defaced by pro-Palestinian vandals Thursday. Photo by Mary Frost

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BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Another pro-Palestinian act of criminal vandalism has taken place in Brooklyn Heights, just blocks from an earlier attack in June.

Residents of a brick co-op on quiet Orange Street woke up Thursday to find their building, vestibule and sidewalk splattered with blood-red paint and triangle-shaped symbols related to the pro-Palestinian cause, with the glass in the front door cracked.

Paint washes down Orange Street to the drain on the corner following Thursday morning’s vandalism. Photo by Mary Frost

The vandalism took place around 3 a.m., a police spokesperson said. The incident is being classified as “criminal mischief,” and the investigation is ongoing.

Besides property damage, the vandals hung a “wanted” poster with Holloway’s photo outside of the building, according to the New York Post. They also threw a can supposedly filled with live crickets into the vestibule.

Rivers of red paint washed along the Orange Street gutter to the corner drain as a building staffer hosed the pillars and sidewalk in Thursday’s intermittent rain.

“I’m trying to get some of it off before it dries,” he said, adding the building would probably have to use a pressure washer to complete the job.

Neighbors were shocked that a second Brooklyn Heights building was targeted by vandals. Photo by Mary Frost

Related to Columbia University protests

The pre-war building on Orange Street is the home of Columbia University’s chief operating officer Cas Holloway.

Columbia has been embroiled in pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionism protests set off by the Israeli response to the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Vandals cracked the glass on the front door and reportedly threw crickets inside the vestibule. Photo by Mary Frost

Palestinian supporters claim Holloway signed off on the use of excessive force in a crackdown on a group of protesters occupying a Columbia University building in Morningside Heights. They are demanding that Columbia divest from companies listed as being complicit in human rights violations and genocide.

‘Threats, not advocacy’

“This attack on our neighbor’s home is unacceptable,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler told the Brooklyn Eagle. “I am deeply disappointed to see protest take the form of vandalism. The safety of our community is paramount and I will continue to encourage open, constructive dialogue instead of harmful vandalism. We are working with NYPD to help ensure there is real accountability.”

A worker at the co-op vandalized by pro-Palestinian activists in Brooklyn Heights Thursday tries to hose off the sidewalk. Photo by Mary Frost

“The Brooklyn Heights Association strongly condemns the vandalism discovered this morning at an apartment building in our neighborhood which is the home of a Columbia University official,” BHA said in a statement. “Like the similar targeting of a nearby apartment building in June, these attempts to intimidate leaders of the city’s cultural and educational institutions, their neighbors and our community at large cannot be considered peaceful protest related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

BHA added, “We continue our call for our elected officials and community partners to stand with us in condemning these attacks which are threats, not advocacy. The city recently charged two individuals with hate crimes in the prior antisemitic vandalism and we appreciate the city’s efforts in conducting a criminal investigation in both incidents.”

This woman’s umbrella matches the color of the paint flowing down the side of Orange Street on Thursday following vandalism. Photo by Mary Frost

“Columbia unequivocally condemns vandalism, threats, and personal attacks,” a Columbia spokesperson said Thursday. “Anyone engaging in such activity will be reported to law enforcement and face appropriate discipline. Every member of our community deserves to feel safe, valued, and able to thrive.”

‘It’s hurting their cause’

As reporters from various news stations set up cameras around the scene on Orange Street Thursday, a woman passing by in the drizzle muttered, “Not another one!” as she surveyed the mess.

The previous attack, classified as a hate crime, took place at the Brooklyn Heights home of the president of the Brooklyn Museum on June 12. Six vandals splattered red spray paint on the windows, pillars, a walkway and front door of Anne Pasternak’s Hicks Street co-op building and strung a sign with bloody handprints across the entrance calling her a “white-supremacist Zionist.”

“Nothing like that should be acceptable,” a longtime resident of the building targeted in June told the Eagle. “We have security every single night now, and the police have come. The Brooklyn Museum requested it.”

She added, “I think it’s hurting their cause. I think there’s a better way, more intelligent and empathetic. They’re making it sound like none of us have the right to be comfortable. Bad enough we have to worry about so many things now — being safe just walking down the street.”

In June, the Brooklyn Heights home of the president of the Brooklyn Museum was also vandalized. Two suspects have been arrested so far. Photo by Mary Frost

Two people connected to the June incident have been arrested so far, including Taylor Pelton, 28, a resident of Astoria, Queens, who was arrested and charged on July 31 with eight counts of “hate crime/criminal mischief property.” On Aug. 6, police arrested Samuel Seligson, an independent Brooklyn videographer, who — though is not accused of being an active participant in the vandalism — is alleged to have been traveling in a car with the activists, entering private property with them and filming the destruction. He was arrested on felony hate crime charges.

The June vandalism also targeted three other homes belonging to members of the Brooklyn Museum’s board, including one in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.