NYC ups policing in Jewish areas after spate of attacks

New York — New York City is increasing its police presence in some Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations after possibly anti-Semitic attacks during the Hanukkah holiday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the latest episode happened Friday.

Besides making officers more visible in Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg, police will boost visits to houses of worship and some other places, the mayor tweeted.

“Anti-Semitism is an attack on the values of our city — and we will confront it head-on,” the mayor wrote. He went later Friday to the headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch, an Orthodox Jewish movement based in Crown Heights.

Around the city, police have gotten at least six reports this week of attacks possibly propelled by anti-Jewish bias.

The latest happened around 12:40 a.m. Friday, when a woman slapped three other women in the face and head after encountering them on a Crown Heights corner, police said. The victims, who range in age from 22 to 31, suffered minor pain, police said.

Tiffany Harris, 30, was arrested on a hate-crime harassment charge.

Her arrest came hours after a hate crime assault arrest in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. There, police said, a woman was hit in the face with a bag by an attacker who made anti-Semitic comments Thursday afternoon. The victim, 34, was with a 3-year-old boy.

The suspect in Thursday’s attack, Ayana Logan, 42, and Harris were both awaiting arraignment Friday. It wasn’t clear whether they had lawyers who could comment on the charges, and no working telephone numbers for the suspects could immediately be found.

On Monday, a Miami man was charged with hate-crime assault after police said he made an anti-Semitic remark and attacked a man in midtown Manhattan. The 65-yearold victim was punched and kicked, suffering cuts, police said.

He had been wearing a yarmulke, according to former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has founded a group dedicated to combating anti-Semitism.