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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 3, 2019
HATEFUL: Police discovered swastikas scrawled on equipment at a Brighton
Beach playground on Feb. 24. Councilman Chaim Deutsch
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Authorities are hunting for
the anti-Semitic scoundrel
who scrawled a pair of swastikas
on equipment inside a
Brighton Beach playground.
Police on Feb. 24 found the
two symbols of hate drawn
in black marker beneath the
slide at Brighton Playground
on Brightwater Court near
Brighton Second Street, according
to cops, who said offi
cers with the department’s
Hate Crimes Task Force are
investigating the incident and
have yet to make any arrests.
The local councilman, who
announced the swastikas’ discovery
on Twitter the next
day, demanded the city take
swift action in the wake of the
vile vandalism, urging Mayor
DeBlasio to approve a pair of
bills — one of which the pol
sponsored — that Council already
passed, which together
would create a new mayoral
offi ce of Hate Crime Prevention
if Hizzoner signs them
into law.
“Are swastikas in playgrounds
the new normal?”
Councilman Chaim Deutsch
(D–Brighton Beach) said on
Twitter . “@NYCMayor- please
implement Hate Crime Prevention
Offi ce!”
Police: Vandal swiped, desecrated
Park Slope Catholic church’s statue
BY COLIN MIXSON
A blasphemous bandit stole and
damaged a beloved statue from inside
a Park Slope church, according
to cops, who said police are investigating
the incident as a hate
crime.
The sacrilegious snake swiped
the statue of Our Lady of Cisne — a
Catholic Marian icon native to the
Loja province of Ecuador — from
Ninth Street’s St. Thomas Aquinas
Church on Feb. 20, devastating
parishioners who said their daily
prayers before the monument, according
to the house of worship’s
parish administrator.
“It’s a part of who they are, a lot
of them come every single morning
to pay homage to our lady and
pray in front of this statue,” said
Fr. Willy Ndi. “To come and not be
able to do that, something they’ve
done for years and years, it’s heartbreaking.”
The thief entered through the
church’s main entrance at 11:10 am,
and emerged with the three-foot-tall
statue just three minutes later, suggesting
the suspect knew his way
around the holy house near Fourth
Avenue, according to Ndi.
“He certainly knew the place
and he was quite comfortable, very
calm,” the priest said.
The vandal then crossed Fourth
Avenue, before tossing the shrine
in a garbage can near an entrance
to the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street
station, breaking off the fi gurine’s
hand that held the baby Jesus, and
insulting parishioners and all local
Catholics in the process, according
to Ndi.
“The statue of our mother being
placed in a garbage can, it’s insulting,”
he said. “It is really sad.”
Church leaders plan to repair
or replace the statue in due time,
but will let the investigation led
by offi cers in the Police Department’s
Hate Crimes Task Force
run its course before making any
decisions, according to the parish
priest, who said clergy won’t display
the statue in the meantime.
And the recent incident wasn’t
the fi rst time a vandal targeted the
church’s Our Lady of Cisne statue
— another goon nabbed, dumped,
and damaged the shrine weeks earlier,
on Jan. 26, Ndi said.
St. Thomas Aquinas leaders did
not report that theft, however, only
contacting police after the second
incident, according to the priest,
who said he could not provide more
detail about the earlier theft because
he transferred to the Park
Slope church from a Cobble Hill
parish on Feb. 1.
OFF LIMITS: Priests are not displaying
the Our Lady of Cisne statue while cops
investigate the recent theft.
Photo by Colin Mixson
Cops seek anti-Semite
who defi led playground