Police: Sneak swiped, desecrated
P’Slope Catholic church’s statue
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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
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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!”
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
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