HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A man's hateful, anti-Semitic comments made during a town board hearing in Rockland County this week has attracted police attention and drawn condemnation from public officials.
On Wednesday, Haverstraw's planning board was reviewing a proposal for a new synagogue when during public comments one man launched into a tirade about the growing Orthodox Jewish community in town.
"Even though there are sidewalks in the neighborhood, a certain sect of people then walk in the street and nobody is wearing any reflective gear, so if I run one of them over, and of course, I'm gonna back over them again, right?" the man said.
People in the room gasped and a town official told the man, "Your time is up sir. Sir, your time is up, please, please go sit down. We're done." Another town official told the man, "You're finished, right now."
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday directed the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force "to assist local leaders responding to this incident."
"Hateful, anti-Semitic speech will not be tolerated. We will do everything we can to protect our communities from this abuse," she said.
She previously condemned the violent, anti-Semitic rhetoric in a tweet on Thursday.
"I have heard reports of violent rhetoric towards our Jewish community at a town meeting in Rockland County. Antisemitism, like all forms of hate, is horrifying and unacceptable. Everyone has the right to walk down the street without fear. New York, we are better than this," Hochul tweeted.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day in a statement called the remarks "beyond disgusting."
"This gentleman here, all he has done is besmirch an entire county, he should be ashamed of himself, he really should be," Day told WCBS 880's Sean Adams. "It's just ignorance and it's hateful and what troubles me as a county executive is that when people say these things, words matter."
According to the Journal News, Haverstraw's police chief will meet Friday with the Rockland County District Attorney's Office to determine whether the remarks constitute a terroristic threat and discuss the possibility of criminal charges.
