Hate rap for scrawl on Wall Street ‘Bull’
A Colorado man was indicted Wednesday for a hate-fueled 2021 spree where swastikas were painted on Wall Street’s landmark Charging Bull statue and a nearby pharmacy, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
James Ryan, 40, was also charged with drawing the Nazi symbol on a gate outside City Hall and scrawling an anti-Black slur at the same downtown location.
“Hate has no place in New York City and these offensive and damaging actions will not be tolerated,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “Ryan put emblems of hate on a city building and one of Manhattan’s most iconic symbols.”
Ryan, of Limon, Colo., was identified as a homeless man after his arrest on Dec. 17, 2001. The indictment charged him with three felony counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime and three felony counts of aggravated harassment.
The defendant, who had one prior arrest for reckless endangerment in 2001, was caught on surveillance video wearing a poncho as he defaced the internationally known bronze sculpture situated on Broadway in lower Manhattan.
The work of art, 11 feet high and 16 feet long, debuted in December 1989 and became an instant tourist attraction, with crowds lining up daily for photos at the busy site.
The City Hall incident occurred around 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2021, followed a day later by Ryan allegedly spray-painting a swastika and a racist slur on a Financial District CVS pharmacy in the afternoon.
Six hours later, the video captured the defendant vandalizing the Wall Street statue.
According to Bragg, the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force was involved in the bringing the suspect to justice along with officers in the 1st Precinct. The DA’s office currently has 20 open cases linked to antisemitic hate crimes, he added.