Swastika at Point Lookout

A Fourth Precinct police officer discovered a three foot by three foot swastika drawn in white chalk in the roadway in Point Lookout this Saturday while on routine patrol.

At 5:05 A.M. the officer noticed five large orange traffic cones blocking off traffic at Lido Boulevard and Glenwood Avenue. He left his vehicle and saw the swastika and obscenities and offensive slogans chalked on the road there.

“It’s being investigated,” said Lieutenant Gary Shapiro, Hate Crimes Coordinator for the Nassau County Police Department and Commanding Officer of Community Affairs. He noted that if someone draws a swastika “in a public place or private property without permission of the owner” it is considered “aggravated harassment in the first degree and in New York State it is an E felony.”

According to the New York State Criminal Courts site, a felony is “an offense for which a sentence to a term of imprisonment in excess of one year may be imposed.” Felonies are divided into five categories, “Class A felonies carry the longest jail sentences and class E felonies carry the shortest jail sentences for felony cases.”

“I keep hate crime statistics and over ten years I do not see any similar occurrence in the Point Lookout area,” said Shapiro. “It’s an isolated end of the island, the beginning of the barrier beach of Long Beach. Someone in that area knows who did it. It’s a small community. We have to identify the young people who did it and identify the reasons, what the motivations were. That’s the trick here. It’s an objectionable occurrence and we are taking it seriously.”

He recalled incidents of graffiti and swastikas in Lido in 2007 and 2008. “It’s troubling,” he said. “It’s a symbol of hate.” They are investigating it as a possible hate crime, he said, noting that they have to find the perpetrators and find out “why they do it” and that it’s a “variety of reasons. One side, it’s for attention, the other side, it’s real extreme hate.”

“We are encouraging the public to call the tip line,” he stressed. “It’s an anonymous way to report information, and you don’t have to give names. Or they can call the precinct and identify themselves, all the better.”

The detectives of the Fourth Precinct are investigating, he said. “I don’t show pictures (of it). There are a ton of kids on Long Island and I don’t want to give them ideas. They are young and don’t understand the ramifications. We try to go with a common sense, level-headed approach. Send a message to the community that we take this stuff very seriously. The swastika is a symbol of hate and we want to send a message that there is zero tolerance for this type of hateful message in the community.”

Harvey Weisenberg, New York State Assemblyman in the 20th A.D. that includes Point Lookout, said that he lived here his whole life and calls Point Lookout a “model community, religious, family oriented, a diverse microcosm of our society.” The swastika, he said, “came from someone who is very ignorant. I feel sorry for that person who did this; he is a very troubled person. You are only defaming yourself when you do this. People are ignorant, not aware of the pain and history the swastika represents and the pain and suffering of the six million who died for their beliefs. I am sure this was most upsetting to those living in Point Lookout.” He said that he is sure that it did not “come out of that community. I feel sorry for them, for the hatred they have in their hearts. We have to send a message that we have to teach tolerance and respect for one another. I hate hearing about these things.”

Dov Hikind, New York State Assemblyman for the 48th assembly district, and the son of Holocaust survivors, has seen many anti-Semitic incidents in his district. He noted “four or five near my house,” in Kensington, on Ocean Parkway and he recently received a call regarding a swastika sighted in the Catskills. “Over the past few months especially it seems like it’s almost constant,” he said. “I don’t know what it means. We should be alert to this. For every one discovered there are many that are not reported. It should be reported.

“Someone goes out and writes a slogan, paints a swastika; it’s the ultimate symbol of hate,” he continued. “It’s very disconcerting, especially to Holocaust survivors. It represents to them something so horrible, it brings back memories of what they went through—hell on earth.

“Very few are arrested for these things,” he added. “Where do they learn this? You don’t just draw a swastika, they have to know what that is. It’s going on all the time. We need to get the perpetrators and throw the book at them. We need to find them.”

“We normally have 70 to 100 cases in the course of a year over Nassau County,” said Shapiro. “It sounds objectionable, so much going on. Any is too much.”

If you have any information contact the tip line at: 1-800-244-TIPS.