Teens Harassed Jewish Men In Williamsburg Hate Crime, Cops Say

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Police are looking for two teenagers who harassed two Jewish men in a possible hate crime last week.

The Hasidic Jewish men were standing on the corner of South 10th Street and Wythe Avenue around 9 p.m. on Friday when the teenagers slapped their religious hats, called Shtreimels, off of their heads, police said.

The teens ran away, but were caught on surveillance video. Police are looking for them on "aggravated harassment" charges and said that the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.

Neither of the Jewish men were hurt because of the incident, police said.

The incident had already made some headlines, and even gotten the attention of Mayor Bill de Blasio, before the police started officially looking into it.

The site Williamsburg News posted a video of the crime on Sunday, which shows that the teenagers who knocked the hats were part of a group of seven that approached the two men. Yeshiva World reported that night that a police report hadn't been filed about the incident yet.

Police describe the two teenagers they are looking for as both being about 15 years old.

One of the teens has a medium build and dark hair and was last seen wearing black pants, a black track suit jacket with white stripes, white sneakers and a black Rolling Stones t-shirt with a picture of a mouth on the front.

The second teen is described as having a medium build with short dark hair. He was last seen wearing black pants, a black t-shirt and white sneakers.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.