Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered the New York State Police to assist in the investigation of racist, anti-Semitic graffiti found on the campus of Brooklyn Technical High School earlier this week.
According to published reports, the hateful slurs were found at about 3:40 p.m. on Jan. 9. The graffiti included a swastika and the words “Kill all Jews” on a third-floor stairwell; the New York Post also reported that the n-word was written in wet toilet paper inside a first-floor bathroom.
Department of Education officials alerted the NYPD, and the case was assigned to the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force for further investigation. So far, no arrests have been made.
On Saturday, Cuomo issued a statement declaring the hateful vandalism an attack “on all of us,” and directed to the New York State Police’s Hate Crimes Task Force to get involved. The person responsible for the crime should be “held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Cuomo noted.
“Racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance are repugnant to New York values,” the governor said in his statement. “We will fight back every time they rear their ugly head, and we will win because we are right and we know diversity is and always will be our greatest strength.”
Brooklyn Tech bills itself as the nation’s largest specialized high school for STEM education. More than 5,900 students attend classes on the campus at 29 Fort Greene Place.
In the wake of a rash of anti-Semitic hate crimes across the New York City area, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and the de Blasio administration announced a renewed effort in public schools to stop the spread of hate.
