Gay pride shocker in SoHo
Rainbow flag set afire outside restaurant, hate crime suspected
A gay pride rainbow flag was set on fire outside a French restaurant in SoHo early Monday in a suspected hate crime, startling video released by the NYPD shows.
The arsonist, her long red hair in a ponytail, got out of the passenger side of a white SUV at 1:35 a.m., lit the flag with a lighter, then took off in the same vehicle, the video shows.
The restaurant, Little Prince on Prince St. near MacDougal St., was closed for the night but there were workers still inside.
It took firefighters about half an hour to put out the fire, which grew to engulf the eatery’s front awning with flowers hanging from it and sent smoke billowing inside.
“Nobody was hurt,” a worker told the Daily News later Monday. “We just want to get on with what we’re doing, open back up for business.”
Neighbors were shaken by the flareup of hate.
“I was really really shocked,” said Sonia Tavares, 45, who was born and raised in the neighborhood and whose husband is the super of the building next to the restaurant.
“Even the way it was done was really disturbing. The neighborhood is not the same anymore.”
The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating. “Last night this person set fire to the pride flag hanging outside Little Prince restaurant, causing the front of the restaurant to go up in flames,” City Councilman Erik Bottcher, who represents the neighborhood, tweeted.
Later in the day, Bottcher and others replaced the burned flag, which had been adorned with the words “Make America Gay Again,” with a flag celebrating gay and trans pride.
“This flag is five times the size of the original flag,” Bottcher said outside the restaurant. “So the person who did this, their plan has backfired and backfired badly.”
In 2019, a rainbow flag was set afire outside a Harlem gay bar twice in a little more than a month, once in June, Pride Month, and once in early July.
A 20-year-old man was later arrested for both incidents at the Alibi Lounge on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. near W. 139th St.
Reports of hate crimes citywide are way down this year compared with last, according to the most recent NYPD data.
So far this year through Feb. 12, 39 people have reported bias-related crimes to the NYPD. The figure is a 43.5% decline from the corresponding period last year that saw 69 hate crimes.