Bigots fueled by hatred and beer terrorized a heavily-Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood Friday, torching three cars, vandalizing a van and defacing other property with anti-Semitic messages.
Stunned residents on the Midwood block awakened to thick black smoke pouring from the cars — and other hateful messages on Ocean Parkway.
“It was horrible,” said 18-year-old Arlette Tebele, whose mother’s charcoal-colored BMW X5 was charred by the flames.
“They were trying to send a message,” she said. “They’re anti-Jew, anti-Semites.”
Her brother, Bobby, was equally angry.
“It’s not so much that the cars got blown up,” he said. “It’s the hatred behind it that’s chilling.”
Eight nearby benches were spray-painted with Nazi swastikas and “SS” — the initials of Hitler’s brutal Gestapo — and “f--k the Jews” was scrawled on a sidewalk. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.
Sandra Simone, a speech therapist at a nearby school, tied the attack to the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, where signs blaming Jews for the economic meltdown have been spotted from time to time.
Police recovered at least four gas containers — and a dozen beer bottles — from the block of Ocean Parkway, between Avenues I and J.
“There were Coronas everywhere,” said one detective. “Looks like they had a party.”
City Councilman David Greenfield’s office offered a $1,000 reward for information about the culprits, and the Anti-Defamation League kicked in an additional $4,000.
A recent ADL survey counted 133 anti-Semitic incidents in the city in 2010 — 53 of them in Brooklyn.
“New York City is home to more than 8 million of the most open and tolerant people in the world,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “But even here, there are occasional incidents involving actions that are hateful or vicious or both.”
Tebele said she was in an upstairs bedroom in her home that overlooks the street when she heard “laughing and screaming,” about 5:30 a.m.
“It was a group of kids,” she said. “There was a series of explosions. The three cars were all on fire. It spread from the first car, to the second car, to the third.”
In addition to the BMW, the vandals incinerated a rented Jaguar and an Audi and spray-painted KKK on a red Ford van parked behind the cars.
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man was arrested about noon Friday for spray-painting swastikas on libraries, a synagogue and a Catholic church — all in Queens. Police don’t believe the suspect, Franco Rodriguez, is connected to the Midwood hate crimes.
Police said Rodriguez confessed to spray-painting the swastikas between Oct. 30 and Nov. 4 in Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. He was charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti.
Stunned residents on the Midwood block awakened to thick black smoke pouring from the cars — and other hateful messages on Ocean Parkway.
“It was horrible,” said 18-year-old Arlette Tebele, whose mother’s charcoal-colored BMW X5 was charred by the flames.
“They were trying to send a message,” she said. “They’re anti-Jew, anti-Semites.”
Her brother, Bobby, was equally angry.
“It’s not so much that the cars got blown up,” he said. “It’s the hatred behind it that’s chilling.”
Eight nearby benches were spray-painted with Nazi swastikas and “SS” — the initials of Hitler’s brutal Gestapo — and “f--k the Jews” was scrawled on a sidewalk. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.
Sandra Simone, a speech therapist at a nearby school, tied the attack to the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, where signs blaming Jews for the economic meltdown have been spotted from time to time.
Police recovered at least four gas containers — and a dozen beer bottles — from the block of Ocean Parkway, between Avenues I and J.
“There were Coronas everywhere,” said one detective. “Looks like they had a party.”
City Councilman David Greenfield’s office offered a $1,000 reward for information about the culprits, and the Anti-Defamation League kicked in an additional $4,000.
A recent ADL survey counted 133 anti-Semitic incidents in the city in 2010 — 53 of them in Brooklyn.
“New York City is home to more than 8 million of the most open and tolerant people in the world,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “But even here, there are occasional incidents involving actions that are hateful or vicious or both.”
Tebele said she was in an upstairs bedroom in her home that overlooks the street when she heard “laughing and screaming,” about 5:30 a.m.
“It was a group of kids,” she said. “There was a series of explosions. The three cars were all on fire. It spread from the first car, to the second car, to the third.”
In addition to the BMW, the vandals incinerated a rented Jaguar and an Audi and spray-painted KKK on a red Ford van parked behind the cars.
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man was arrested about noon Friday for spray-painting swastikas on libraries, a synagogue and a Catholic church — all in Queens. Police don’t believe the suspect, Franco Rodriguez, is connected to the Midwood hate crimes.
Police said Rodriguez confessed to spray-painting the swastikas between Oct. 30 and Nov. 4 in Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. He was charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti.
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