In a strongly critical opinion piece, The New York Post blames “lax law enforcement” in New York City for the rise in anti-Semitic violence.
According to the article released this past weekend and written by a prominent researcher at Tel Aviv University, there are far too few convictions and far too few arrests made by the NYPD about the number of hate crimes.
It claimed that only 72 arrests had been made out of the 261 anti-Jewish hate crimes that the NYPD had noted in 2022.
Additionally, most hate crime arrests do not result in convictions for hate crimes.
“In recent years, America’s social and political climate has become a fertile ground for antisemitism,” the op-ed by Dr. Carl Yonker says.
Although the far-right in the United States used to be associated with antisemitism, it has flourished in the current culture wars.
“Also concerning — and not just for Jews, but for all minority communities — are the wide gaps between arrests for antisemitic crimes and the productive prosecutions and convictions of these incidents as hate crimes,” the article says.
The article was primarily based on a recent university study conducted with the ADL’s assistance, which revealed a high concentration of antisemitic attacks in Orthodox Jewish communities and a lackluster reaction from police and prosecutors.
Our study found that the majority of antisemitic physical assaults in New York City took place on streets or in areas with a high concentration of ultra-Orthodox Jews after analyzing the victims and locations of these assaults.
In particular, Brooklyn neighborhoods Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Midwood,” the article states.
Our research also suggests that most of these attacks were unplanned, the statement continued.
“The gaps in arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators of antisemitic violence are equally troublesome,” added the op-ed.
“Along with the surge in antisemitic events. Only 72 arrests have been made due to the 261 anti-Jewish hate crimes that the NYPD reported in 2022.
In contrast, only nine arrests have been made in connection with the 53 anti-Black hate crimes, while 67 have been made with the 83 anti-Asian hate crimes reported by the NYPD in 2022.
When pursuing these acts as hate crimes, the situation is also not encouraging. Data on 569 hate crime arrests in New York City between 2015 and 2020 were investigated in an investigative report in The City in March 2022.
A scant 15% of hate crime arrests resulted in hate crime convictions, according to the report’s authors, even though 65% of those arrests resulted in convictions.
District attorneys’ offices must zealously pursue criminal charges for even relatively minor offenses, the article’s conclusion stated, to demonstrate that such incidents are not tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, even though getting convictions for hate crimes may be difficult.
Even in the absence of a conviction for a hate crime, victims must be given the appearance that justice has been served. No community can ever feel safe as long as antisemitism is allowed to spread unchecked.
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