New York City is beefing up police presence in certain neighborhoods in the wake of a string of anti-Semitic incidents that continued Friday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that there would be more cops in Boro Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg, as well as at synagogues.
In addition to heightened visibility, there will be increased visits to houses of worship and other critical areas in the community.
Anti-Semitism is an attack on the values of our city — and we will confront it head-on.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 27, 2019
The three neighborhoods and others have seen several attacks and other incidents in recent days. Multiple New York City Jews have been physically assaulted in public; some assailants have allegedly accompanied the attacks with anti-Semitic slurs.
At least six of the incidents that occurred this week are being investigated as potential hate crimes.
In one instance in Manhattan on Monday, a man was allegedly punched in the face and then kicked while on the ground. The alleged assaulter, 37 years his minor, allegedly made an anti-Semitic comment in the process.
“Fuck you Jew,” another victim recalled being told as a Slurpie was thrown at him in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights.
The wave continued on Friday, when a woman allegedly slapped three people in Crown Heights.
Also Friday, a man reportedly walked into the World Headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights and threatened a mass shooting before walking away.
The incidents come in the wake of a shooting massacre at a kosher deli in Jersey City, New Jersey earlier this month, which is being investigated as an act of terrorism, “fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs.”
