VIDEO: Man Hurls Rocks At Confederate Flags In East Village Window

EAST VILLAGE, NY — An outraged man threw rocks at an Alphabet City apartment displaying Confederate flags, according to neighbors and video footage of the incident.

The building's occupant, who neighbors said has been displaying the flags in his windows on East Eighth Street and Avenue D for months, has long been the source of complaints. They apparently came to a head this week in the wake of a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Wednesday night, video footage shows an unknown man throwing rocks at the windows.

"Tell that [n------] to take his flag down or I'll break all those windows," the man says in the video. "My kids gotta see that s**t."

Police did not immediately have details about the incident, but the video footage shows officers at the scene speaking with the man. An NYPD squad car has been parked on the block since Thursday morning, neighbors said. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The East Village resident who displayed the flags, who has not been identified, has lived in the neighborhood for years, according to multiple neighbors who spoke with Patch. In the windows of his fifth-floor apartment hang two Confederate flags, an American flag and an Israeli flag. Although community members have approached him previously and asked him to remove the flags from his windows, locals say that it wasn't until Charlottesville that his display caused larger-scale outrage.

Attempts to contact the occupant were unsuccessful Thursday.

The Charlottesville rally, organized by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, was planned to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in a Charlottesville park. The protesters, many of whom were armed with guns, marched through the city bearing flaming torches and openly chanted threats like "Jews will not replace us."

On Saturday, counter protester Heather Heyer was killed when James Alex Fields allegedly drove his car into a group of anti-racist demonstrators, including Heyer. Fields was reportedly a Nazi sympathizer, according to his teacher.

National frustration over Charlottesville was exacerbated by Trump's response when he blamed the violence "on many sides."

On Thursday morning, Trump doubled down, defending the existence of Confederate symbols. He tweeted that it was "sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments."

Aokeeyba Taylor, an East Village resident, said Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville was not enough and said he should forcefully denounce hate groups like those gathered there.

"The president, he's really got to come out and just denounce all of this," Taylor said. "You know like, this is wrong, I was wrong. I'm going to change, I'm going to be a better president. I'm going to try, at least try.

"I just think in 2017, this is outlandish. I just think it's appalling. This is a diverse community; you've got Jews, you've got blacks, you've got immigrants."

Photos via Ciara McCarthy / Patch. Video footage courtesy of Jannette Brown.