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.
