Man Charged With Scrawling Swastika, Anti-Semitic Slur On Staten Island Garage

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man was arrested and charged Thursday with scrawling a swastika and an anti-Semitic slur onto a garage on Staten Island.

James Rizzo Jr., 37, was charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime in the incident on Wirt Avenue in Rossville. He is a neighbor of the family that he allegedly targeted.

"It's hard and very upsetting to know that someone could have that much hate for someone of a certain religion or a certain race," vandalism victim Halle Calabrese, 17, said Wednesday.

Officers from the NYPD 123rd Precinct and a City Council-sponsored Where to Clean team cleaned up the graffiti Thursday.

The incident comes a week after somebody scratched the N-word and the words "get out" into the hood of a car belonging to a family in nearby Annadale.

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• Staten Island
• Swastika