Police are seeking hate-crime charges after banners torn down

SAN JOSE >> Police said they were seeking hate-crime charges in two incidents where pro-Gaza banners were torn down from San Jose freeway overpasses, including one this past weekend that was partially caught on video and allegedly included threats of violence.

The video, taken on Sunday and posted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, begins in the middle of analready heated argument between two people. One man stands in front of the camera, next to a large banner hung on a freeway overpass. The incident took place on the Park Avenue overpass above Interstate 880 in San Jose, authorities said Wednesday.

In the 3 minute and 19 second video, a man is seen engaging in a political argument with the man holding the recording device. The discussion centers on the two banners, which both appear to say “End Israeli Occupation. Save Gaza.”

About 30 seconds into the video, the other man pulls out a knife and begins to cut and tear down the first banner. He audibly calls the man with the camera a “terrorist” at one point.

No physical contact is recorded on the video, though CAIR said in a news release Tuesday that the man who tore the banners down threatened volunteers with bear spray. At one point in the video, he calls his own actions “peaceful,” a claim that draws a derisive response from the camera operator.

The video ends with the man taking the banners into his vehicle and driving away.

“We are appalled by the brazen assault and vandalism targeting advocates exercising their right to express support for Palestine,” said San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Zahra Billoo.

San Jose police said Wednesday that the suspect in Sunday's incident and another suspect accused of a similar crime had been identified.