The sight of anti-Semitic messages graffitied onto a parked moving fan in the East Village on Friday morning had one local lawmaker infuriated.
State Senator Brad Hoylman took to Twitter on Sept. 25 and displayed a photograph of Nazi messages scrawled onto the side of a Katz Moving van along First Avenue between East Second and Third Streets.
Multiple swastikas had been painted onto the van along with the numbers 1488, a common code for white supremacist and Nazi messages.
Hoylman said he reported the vandalism to the 9th Precinct as well as the Anti-Defamation League. On Friday afternoon, however, an NYPD spokesperson did not have information immediately available about the complaint.
An incensed Hoylman railed against the bigotry on display as “sickening.”
“The perpetrators must be found and held accountable,” the lawmaker tweeted on Friday morning. “Go to hell, Nazis.”
Hoylman followed up in the afternoon with a press release formally condemning the vandalism, and admonishing President Trump for helping to instigate a spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes since 2019.
“Hate is not welcome in our district, in Manhattan, or in any other part of our city. More than half of New York City’s hate crimes in 2019 victimized Jews, a clear outgrowth of the hate groups emboldened and tolerated by President Donald Trump. The perpetrators of this attack must be caught and held accountable,” he said. “Remember, close to 40,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors live in New York City. It hurts my heart to think that the many people who found refuge in America are still being targeted by this hateful ideology. Go to hell, Nazis.”
Bjorn Katz, a dispatcher and spokesperson for Katz Moving, condemned the “heinous act” in an email to amNewYork Metro, and said crews would remove the vandalism as soon as possible.
Anyone with information about the incident can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA). You can also submit tips online at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Just saw this on the west side of 1st Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets. Sickening. The perpetrators must be found and held accountable.
Go to hell, Nazis. pic.twitter.com/VzrRZ5Urns
— Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (@bradhoylman) September 25, 2020
It’s the second reported case of anti-Semitic vandalism in the East Village area this month. Back on Sept. 12, a bigot scrawled hate-filled messages outside a building on Washington Place, just a few steps from Washington Square Park.
