Racist Graffiti At African Burial Ground Is "Terrorism," Pols Say

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — City, state and federal officials must join forces to find the person who defaced the African Burial Ground Monument in Lower Manhattan Thursday with a racist slur, city officials demanded Monday.

A vandal scrawled "Kill N-----s" in black marker on a plaque at the federal monument, which was quickly covered by a National Parks Service worker's coat before it was scrubbed away.

"Thankfully they did wipe it off but it doesn’t wipe away what happened," said Councilman Jumaane Williams, a member of the Council's Black, Latino and Asian (BLA) Caucus, at an afternoon news conference.

"We need to know who did this and they need to be held accountable, because of course this is egregious, but people should not think they can just walk around writing this and then nothing happens."

As of Monday afternoon, authorities said they did not have a suspect in the incident.

Williams, whose district includes Flatbush, Flatlands and Midwood, said he is "frustrated" by the lack of suspects when the property is surrounded by surveillance cameras and is across the street from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building that is regularly lined with Federal Protective Services officers.

The 290 Broadway burial ground is also mere steps from City Hall and the Manhattan Supreme Court.

Unearthed in 1991 during construction of an office building, the six-acre burial ground contains some 15,000 remains of the city's colonial African American community — many of whom were slaves. Locals fought for the monument, which has come to embody the city's long-ignored history of slavery.

A group of stunned New Yorkers stumbled upon the racially charged vandalism Thursday just after 11:30 a.m. One woman took a photo and forwarded it to a reporter before the graffiti was washed off, she said.

"It made me sick. I was with maybe four other New Yorkers — black, white, brown — and we just stopped and stared at it," said Suzanne Gardinier, a West Village poet, who wanted New Yorkers to be aware of the hate-fueled writing.

"It just takes your breath away, you know, that’s what it’s meant to do, right? Say, 'You think you’re safe here? You think you’re a New Yorker among New Yorkers? No, no, no — we’re here to.' It’s just shocking in that way."

One Councilman called on President Donald Trump to denounce the act and urged swift action in apprehending the culprit.

"I’m calling on the president to denounce it. This is happening in the city but this is under the federal government," said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who is also a BLA Caucus member, and represents Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill.

"They should be using all surveillance here. That person should be behind bars at this moment."

The incident came amid a wave of anti-semitism in the country and city, including someone scrawling "Die Jew Rats" inside a Prospect Heights synagogue and a vandal drawing swastikas on a Brooklyn Heights block.

The acts came less than a week after the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history when 11 people were gunned down at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

"We stand today with the African American community against this hateful, horrible, horrific act, and what I would call terrorism, because this individual is terrorizing a community," said Councilman Chaim Deutsch, a member of the Council's Jewish Caucus whose district includes Midwood, Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach.

Reports of hate crimes have sharply increased in major American cities over the last two years, according to a report by California University’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

There were 339 hate crimes reported in New York City in 2017, the report notes. The year to date, 290 hate crimes have been reported in the city to the NYPD, data shows.

Deutsch plans to introduce a pair of bills to the City Council that would mandate the NYPD's hate crimes task force have "a crime prevention unit" to conduct cultural outreach in communities, and to require district attorney offices report the motives behind hate crimes in addition to general statistics.

"We as a city need to understand not numbers, but motives so this way we can better put in the resources and educate the public so incidents like this never, ever, ever happen again," said Deutsch.

"We will not just sit back we will continue to unify and stand up to such incidents."

Photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch