Queens Beach Club Vandalized With Anti-Semitic Graffiti: Report

BREEZY POINT, QUEENS — The playground at the Silver Gull Beach Club in Breezy Point closed for part of Labor Day weekend after vandals covered it with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti, according to reports.

The graffiti included the phrases "heil Hitler" and "gas chamber," a red swastika and racial slurs targeting black people, the New York Times reported; it was quickly painted over, a beach club member told the news outlet.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday directed the New York State Police's hate crimes task force to help the U.S. Park Police in New York investigate the incident.

" Every single elected official in this state - Democrat and Republican - must come together to denounce these continued acts of hatred and attempts to intimidate and terrorize," Cuomo said in a statement. "We must also call these vile acts what they are - they are hate crimes and they are illegal."

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Sergeant Richard Firrito, a spokesperson for the U.S. Park Police in New York, told Gothamist the vandals appeared to have broken into an arts and crafts shed about 3:30 p.m. Friday, while the club was open.

The graffiti comes amid a recent uptick in reported hate crimes, driven largely by a surge in anti-Semitic attacks, according to city data and the New York Times.

Police had received 145 reports of anti-Semitic hate crimes as of Aug. 25 this year, up from 88 during the same period last year, the Times reported.

Silver Gull opened in 1963 and is now one of the city's few remaining private beach clubs, according to Gothamist.