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Threatening Anti-Gay Notes Found On Cars In Hell's Kitchen
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 16, 2016
Modified Jun 16, 2016
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 16, 2016
Modified Jun 16, 2016
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Threatening hateful notes targeting the gay community have been found on car windshields in Hell's Kitchen this week, following Sunday's massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
The notes were first found on West 46th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues at around 7 a.m. on Sunday, just hours after news broke about the shooting in Florida. DNAinfo reports the notes included messages like, "God commanded Jewish people to 1) Kill the homosexuals 2) Kill the witches among us,"—more notes were found on Monday, reading, “America is a Christian nation. Satan will not be a king in N.Y.C. — might be the end of Homosexuality in N.Y.C.," and “Those faggots, homosexuals, sexual pervert, sexual impotents — trash, garbage, socio-economic drop out — bartenders — cooks — trash — you will be corpes [sic]."
Notes were found on at least a dozen cars between Sunday and Monday, and on Wednesday, the manager of a laundromat on West 46th Street told reporters someone handed him a similarly threatening note on Sunday. He described the man as approximately 40 years old; other people say they witnessed someone putting notes on cars, but their descriptions differed. One neighborhood resident posted on Facebook that threatening notes were left at several bars in the area. "Our neighborhood is no longer safe, our home is no longer safe..... The threats are now 3 blocks from my apartment...," he wrote.
Though the NYPD says the threats are probably not credible, people in the area are understandably rattled in light of Sunday's attacks. "I think by putting our guards down, we are taking it lightly, and I think the only way to do this is fight back," Michael Guerriera, owner of City Sandwich on Ninth Avenue, told NBC New York.
The NYPD tells us the Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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