New York City police are warning that antisemitic hate crimes have skyrocketed in the Big Apple since the October 7 war launched against Israel by Gaza’s Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization.
Speaking at a budget hearing on public safety on Wednesday (March 20), New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief Detective Joseph Kenny told those gathered in the City Council Chambers that antisemitic hate crime in the city has spiked after the start of the war.
“In 2023 New York City showed an increase in hate crime by the end of the year. Six of the ten categories showed an increase. We ended 2023 with 669 hate crimes, versus 650 (in the previous year); that’s an increase of three percent, or 19 crimes totally committed.
“As of 10/7/23 the city was down in overall hate crime by 20 percent,” he noted. “After the conflict began in the Middle East we saw, the best way to describe it, we saw a steady increase in our decrease.
“This increase predominantly affected the Jewish community,” Kenny said.
“By the year’s end hate crimes against Jews increased by 14 percent. That’s 323 crimes versus 284; that’s an additional 39 incidents that were reported.
One hundred and forty-one of the 323 Jewish hate crimes involved swastika incidents, and that came out to 43 percent itself,” the chief detective said.
Anti-Muslim hate crime was significantly lower.
“In the same time period for last year there was a total of seven hate crimes where the complainant was Palestinian,” he said.
“In 2023, Jewish-related hate crime accounted for 48 percent of all hate crimes committed,” Kenny added.
Since January 1, 2024, “We’re kind of seeing the same numbers,” he said. “Fifty-one percent of all hate crimes reported are hate crimes against the Jews.”
