NYC's Hate Crime Epidemic Has Seeped Underground, Data Show

NEW YORK — New York City's hate crime epidemic has seeped underground. Bigoted attacks and graffiti on the subways have spiked more than 54 percent this year largely thanks to a rash of antisemitic scrawlings, police say.

The NYPD has recorded 68 hate crimes across the subway system, up from 44 at the same time in 2018, according to Transit Chief Edward Delatorre. Hate-fueled graffiti accounts for 55 of this year's crimes, and 39 of those tags have targeted Jewish people — more than twice last year's number, he said.

"It’s basically swastikas being drawn in various places around the subway, sometimes on the train, in the bathroom, sometimes on a pillar in the subway," Delatorre said at a Wednesday news conference in Brooklyn.

Police have made arrests in eight of the 13 hate crimes that have been committed against individuals this year, Delatorre said. Cops have also installed "covert cameras" in spots that have seen repeated incidents, he said.

The increase mirrors a spike in hate crimes across the city. Some 323 had been reported as of Oct. 6, a 33 percent increase from the prior year, the NYPD has said. That included 170 antisemitic hate crimes, up 53 percent from 111 at the same time in 2018.

While bigoted graffiti has been most prevalent on the subway, the system has reportedly seen some unsettling hate-fueled attacks.

One Brooklyn straphanger had his phone snatched from his shirt pocket and thrown at a train by a man who shouted "Heil, Hitler!" in June — a day after a man was accused of knocking a rider's hat off in Manhattan and saying "Stupid Jew, what’s your problem?" according to THE CITY.

The NYPD investigates every hate crime and has "really good coordination" with New York City Transit, which runs the subway, Delatorre said. Transit workers also remove trains tagged with bigoted graffiti from service, NYC Transit President Andy Byford said.

"The MTA has zero tolerance for attacks on our fellow New Yorkers on the basis of religious faith, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender," Byford said in a statement Wednesday. "Hate crimes, including offensive graffiti in subways, are abhorrent and reprehensible."