Vandals spray painted two swastikas and the words "Go Trump" on children's playground equipment in the Brooklyn Park. Yauch, who died in 2012, was Jewish and grew up in the neighborhood.
— Brad Lander (@bradlander) November 18, 2016
The graffiti was painted over within hours and the New York Police Department is investigating the incident. An anti-hate rally was organized in response the next day by State Senator Daniel Squadron, Congresswoman Nydia Velásquez and other city council members, elected officials and community and faith leaders. Beastie Boys member Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) attended.
"Adam Yauch stood for tolerance," the New York City Mayor's Office tweeted in the wake of the incident, condemning the hateful crime.
The US saw an uptick in hate crimes in 2015, the FBI reported in its annual Hate Crime Statistics report. There were 664 anti-Jewish incidents in 2015 and 257 anti-Muslim crimes – the latter figure an increase of 67% from 2014, the New York Times reported.
Since Donald Trump's election victory, following a campaign in which he called for Muslims to be registered or banned from entering the US, hate crimes have increased. Swastikas have been drawn elsewhere in New York, including in the residence hall of the New School in the city and at SUNY Geneseo, where the word "Trump" was also painted, according to the Geneseo Sun.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has been tracking reports of hateful incidents since the election. So far, the center has collected 700 reports of harassment, intimidation and hate crimes, including 60 reports of swastikas. Most of the incidents have been anti-immigrant (206) or anti-black (151).
"Since the election, we've seen a big uptick in incidents of vandalism, threats, intimidation spurred by the rhetoric surrounding Mr. Trump's election," Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, told USA Today. "The white supremacists out there are celebrating his victory and many are feeling their oats."
In his first post-election interview, Trump told his followers to “stop it” with racist incidents, saying he was "so saddened" to hear about them.
Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, until August ran Breitbart News, a website accused of running hateful and anti-Semitic commentary.
