City Kids Get Hate Crime Curriculum After Hanukkah Attacks

BROOKLYN, NY — Hate crime awareness classes, "light towers," security cameras and safety coalitions will all accompany extra cops in Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to combat a spike in anti-Semitic crimes in Brooklyn, the mayor announced.

De Blasio joined NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and other officials to reveal the details of his new hate crime prevention plan Sunday, days after first announcing that more police would be stationed in Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations as anti-Semitic crimes mounted in the borough.

There have been at least eight anti-Semitic incidents throughout the city since the Dec. 13, many of which have happened during Hanukkah over the last week, according to police.

The mayor said Sunday that along with extra cops in Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park — where most of the hateful attacks have been — the city would also be rolling out classes for middle school and high school students and "neighborhood safety coalitions" to help prevent the crimes.

"We have to give people a sense of security and we have to show that this horrible trend we've seen over the last weeks will be stopped dead in its tracks," de Blasio said at a press conference. "We will show New York City, we will show the world who we are. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us and we will not let it stand."

The announcement came just hours after a man suspected of the bloody attack on Orthodox Jews in Rockland County was arrested in Harlem on Saturday.

The attack was an example of the rise of anti-Semitic incidents not just in New York City, but across the country, officials said.

Specifically in Brooklyn, a man threatened to shoot up the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, three women were slapped in the face by a woman who said she targeted them because they were Jewish, a mom in Sheepshead Bay was called a "f---ing Jew," two young Hasidic Jewish boys were punched and another three men were attacked walking on the borough's streets — all in the last week.

The incidents initially led de Blasio to station more cops in Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park on Friday.

On Sunday he said those extra officers will also be added to Midwood and Bed-Stuy, along with increased police presence during local events or at houses of worship. All five neighborhoods will also get more security cameras and Borough Park will get new "light towers," de Blasio said.

His plan also includes creating "Neighborhood Safety Coalitions" in Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park, who will strategize about how to stop hate crimes by creating programs at schools, religious institutions and other community spots.

In the meantime, the three neighborhoods will also get new hate crime awareness classes at their middle and high schools this month. A full curriculum on hate crimes will be launched in the neighborhoods next school year and will be available to schools city-wide, the mayor said.

He added that the new safety measures will also need help from everyday New Yorkers.

"That phrase, if you see something, say something, really matters now," de Blasio said. "If you hear someone saying something threatening towards the Jewish community, or any community; if you hear someone contemplating an act of violence or you see them acting in a manner that suggests that violence is imminent, the NYPD needs to know right away. Do not hesitate. Call 9-1-1."