Woman punched man who filmed anti-Semitic rant in Brooklyn, NYPD says
A woman in Brooklyn broke the cellphone of a man in a yarmulke, threw it at his face and punched him in the throat after he began filming an anti-Semitic tirade by the woman's associate, according to the NYPD, which announced her arrest.
It's the latest allegation of an attack involving anti-Semitism in New York City, which is experiencing a rise in reports of such crimes over the past year, especially against Orthodox Jews wearing religious clothing.
The Brooklyn case happened on New Year's Day at about 12:45 p.m. at Broadway near Gerry Street after the 34-year-old associate of the woman, 24, made the anti-Semitic remarks to the man, 22, who was wearing a yarmulke, according to a police spokesman.
He began filming using his cellphone, and the 24-year-old grabbed the device from his hand and punched him in the throat, causing him pain, the NYPD's press office said in an email.
Both women then fled on foot, but were detained near Broadway and Rutledge Street shortly thereafter by NYPD officers who responded to a 911 call about the altercation, the email said.
The 34-year-old is not accused of criminal wrongdoing. She was freed from custody without being charged.
The 24-year-old, Jasmine Lucus of Brooklyn, was charged with felony assault and criminal mischief, according to the department email. The police spokesman said the department's hate crime task force was notified about the case but he didn't know whether Lucus had been charged with a hate crime.
It was not clear whether Lucus is represented by an attorney, and Lucus couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was brought by ambulance to NYU Langone Health in Cobble Hill in stable condition, the police email said.
Last week, there were at least eight separate attacks in New York City involving suspected anti-Semitism, according to the NYPD. Many of the attacks have occurred in neighborhoods in Brooklyn with large populations of Orthodox Jews. But there have also been reports of attacks in other places in the city, such as midtown Manhattan.
Last month, the NYPD commissioner, Dermot Shea, said that there had been a 22% increase in anti-Semitic crimes reported in 2019, though most were not physical violence but vandalism such as swastika graffiti.
On Saturday, a man burst into a Rockland County rabbi's home and used a machete to stab five people at a celebration on the penultimate night of Hanukkah, according to court papers charging him with federal crimes. He was arrested in Harlem shortly after the attack.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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