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Police arrest 2 at NYC's Penn Station following threat of antisemitic attack
By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2022
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By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2022
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Police have arrested two men they believe were planning an attack against Jewish people.
The men were arrested by MTA officers on Saturday morning at Penn Station, after authorities learned about a potential threat Friday, according to police.
The men were allegedly carrying a large hunting knife, an illegal Glock firearm and a 30-round magazine of ammunition. The NYPD did not immediately release any other information about the planned attack. Both local and federal law enforcement are investigating the case.
“I join all New Yorkers today in expressing my gratitude and pride for the ever-vigilant work of our NYPD women and men — who remain on guard around the clock and every day to protect the peace and ensure no violence can ever come to the city and its people,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement.
Earlier this month, police arrested a man in New Jersey who had allegedly sent at least half a dozen people a manifesto in which he planned to attack a synagogue because of his “hatred towards Jews,” Gothamist reported at the time. Federal authorities issued a warning to synagogues statewide a week earlier.
Antisemitic hate crimes have been on the rise in recent years. Nearly 700 were reported nationwide in 2020, the last year of available FBI data. The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitism, counted 2,717 antisemitic incidents across the country in 2021 — a 34% increase from its count the year prior and the highest number since it started tracking in 1979.
Scott Richman with the ADL largely attributes the rise in antisemitic hate to three factors: a lack of content moderation on social media, increasing polarization in society and the “emboldening” of extremists in recent years. He noted that those same trends have also contributed to surging hate against other minority groups.
“The Jewish community is not in a vacuum here,” he said.
Richman said his organization receives calls every day about threats and attacks against Jews, from swastikas in schools to vandalism in cemeteries and a Jewish man having his hat knocked off of his head. He said today’s threat was “at the highest level,” adding that the ADL’s Center on Extremism had found hundreds of hateful statements — many of them antisemitic and misogynistic — on the Twitter account of one of the men who was arrested, before his account allegedly disappeared.
“The threat that manifested itself over the past 24 hours against the Jewish community in New York is horrifying,” Richman said.
In a tweet, Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that she had increased state police’s commitment to tracking domestic extremism on social media. She signed an executive order after the Buffalo shooting to create a unit dedicated to tracking such threats online.
“Today, their vigilance & heroic work by @MTA police officers helped stop a threat to our Jewish communities,” Hochul said in her tweet.
Recent antisemitic statements by celebrities have also put some members of the Jewish community on edge. Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving was suspended indefinitely after posting the link to an antisemitic movie on Twitter last month. Kanye West, the musical artist who now performs as Ye, has also been criticized in recent weeks for spreading conspiracy theories and making anti-Jewish statements, prompting several of his business partners to cut ties. Jokes about the controversies during comedian Dave Chappelle’s opening monologue on “Saturday Night Live” last week once again raised concerns among some members of the Jewish community that threats of antisemitism are not being taken seriously enough.
Tagged
antisemitism
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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