Banner Teardowns – Hate Crimes?

The Brooklyn Eagle writes about vandals who have been ripping down banners posted on many houses of worship in Brooklyn Heights celebrating spiritual and cultural diversity:

Brooklyn Eagle: …Hate Crime or Prank?: Police investigators are looking into whether a series of destructive acts involving the ripping down of ecumenical-themed banners from local churches can be considered a hate crime, according to Leslie Lewis, criminal justice coordinator for the Borough President’s Office.

The banners, with the legend “We Are All Children of One God,” were fastened onto the fences of area churches and synagogues in the aftermath of the Sept. 24 incident where swastikas were found scrawled on two local synagogues on Remsen Street.

Several of the banners – for example, those in front of Assumption Church and Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims and the First Unitarian Church – are still there. One other, at Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church on Henry Street, was discovered missing about two weeks ago, but Pastor George Muenich didn’t mention it outside his congregation until recently. At the time, no one had discovered a pattern.

Meanwhile, there still has not been an arrest in September's synagogue swastika spraying spree.

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