Chuck: Let FCC help threat probe
Ave. in Kew Gardens, officials said.
At about 8:30 p.m., in the Bronx, a swastika was found etched in a seat on a No. 6 train receiving routine maintenance at the Westchester train yard on Waters Place in Westchester Square, cops said.
In Long Island, Suffolk County police on Wednesday announced that they are looking for a vandal who wrote “Trump Lies” with a swastika replacing the “M” in Trump.
The swastika spree comes as Jewish Community Centers in New York and across the country have been the targets of several bomb threats — including one on Staten Island on Monday.
Dozens of Jewish centers have been targeted with bomb threats in a series of apparently coordinated calls. None of the threats directly led to violence.
Gov. Cuomo has ordered the state police to coordinate with federal and local law enforcement to investigate the disturbing trend.
“Each and every one of those threats that gets called in is investigated by either the joint terrorist task force or our intelligence bureau,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. “We’ve spoken with the FBI with regards to specific verbiage used in each one and we believe that this is a bigger problem for us. We’re working with the FBI in regards to that particular pattern.”
Vandals have overturned or damaged hundreds of tombstones in Jewish cemeteries in Philadelphia and St. Louis.
Anti-Semitic bias crimes have jumped 94% in the city this year, Boyce said, adding that many of the swastikas have been found in the transit system.
“We’ve had 16 (swastikas) versus five (last year),” Boyce said. “That’s a problem for us.”
As of Sunday, cops were investigating 35 anti-Semitic bias crimes — 17 more than the 18 reported this time last year, officials said.
Overall bias crimes have increased from 44 by this time last year to 68 in 2017, cops said.
Cops are increasing their patrols around Jewish centers in the wake of the uptick in anti-Semitic crimes, according to NYPD Chief of Department Carlos Gomez.
“We want to provide a sense of safety. . . reassure the centers that we’re there,” Gomez said. “The Passover holidays are only five or six weeks away, so we’re going to continue this and actually increase it as we get closer to Passover.” SEN. CHUCK Schumer is asking the Federal Communications Commission to grant a waiver that would allow investigators to unscramble the anonymous phone numbers being used to call in bomb threats to Jewish community centers across the U.S. In a letter, Schumer (DN.Y.) requested that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai allow law enforcement to trace the anonymous calls — which are believed to be coming from internet-based phone systems that more easily enable the caller to disguise the phone number. CNN, citing law enforcement sources, said it’s believed many of the threatening calls came from overseas.