Adam Yauch Park Defaced With Hateful Graffitti – Electeds Organize “Stand Up Against Hate” For This Sunday

By on November 18, 2016 9:16 pm in 11201, Brooklyn Heights, crime, Election 16, Events, News, Politics, Public Safety

Hate is on our doorstep, where our children play. On Friday afternoon a resident alerted Senator Daniel Squadron’s office that Adam Yauch Park playground had been defaced with swastikas and the message, “Go Trump.”  The Daily News reports The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident and the Parks Department is in the process of removing the offensive graffiti.

AdamYauch_Defaced

Image courtesy Office of Daniel Squadron

In response, elected officials and community leaders immediately organized an event for this Sunday to “Stand Up Against Hate.” 

State Senator Daniel Squadron, Congresswoman Velázquez, Councilmembers Brad Lander & Stephen Levin, elected officials, community and faith leaders invite the community to denounce hate in our neighborhood and across the country. 

The gathering  is scheduled for this Sunday at 11:30 am at Adam Yauch Park, located on State Street between Columbia and Willow Place.

UPDATE: Per a press release on Sunday morning, the blog can confirm the attendance of Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz (Ad Rock), the Anti-Defamation League, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Tish James and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

Numerous music industry publications have reported the incident including Billboard and Pitchfork. Adam Yauch, a.k.a MCA was a founding member of the seminal hip-hop group, The Beastie Boys.  Like his two surviving band mates, Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) and Michael Diamond (Mike D), Yauch was Jewish.  The park was posthumously renamed in Yauch’s honor in 2013 after his death from cancer in May 2012. Horovitz is scheduled to attend.

Officials announced the event via social media.  In one of several tweets, Daniel Squadron invited the President-Elect.

DanielSquadronTweet

Councilmember Brad Lander released a statement via his Facebook page, “Yet more hatred and anti-Semitism from Trump supporters. Swastikas on the playground equipment in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights.

Adam Yauch is weeping for our country. His mom was Jewish. He was a practicing Buddhist. He spoke out against Islamophobia. And though some of the Beastie Boys early lyrics were homophobic and misogynist, they later apologized, in an open-heared and earnest way. “I want to say a little something that’s long overdue/The disrespect to women has got to be through.”

#NeverIsNow #WeveSeenThisBefore”

*Cover photo Flickr Creative Commons/Sam Beebe

 

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  • StudioBrooklyn

    Hah it’s like rubbing a magical oil lamp or something

  • Doug Biviano

    Why do you attempt to demean others? Are you that insecure?

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Aw just a little jab, are you that thin-skinned?

  • Doug Biviano

    I’m very comfortable in my skin. This seems to be your issue.

  • Doug Biviano

    If you watch Trump’s 60 Minutes interview he says “Stop it!” over and
    over regarding supporters of his doing bad things. He can definitely
    say more in stronger terms but so can Obama and HRC. All three need to
    be calling for calm as I’m fairly certain there are provocateurs on both
    sides. Here’s some levity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKOb-kmOgpI

  • Michael

    I watched Trump on 60 minutes. He even looked right at the camera to say ‘stop’ which of course stopped all the behavior all over the country, because he really meant it. It was the most anemic thing I think I have seen him say – he had tougher words for Megan Kelly.

    Think the scariest part of that interview was the wildly inconsistent attitude he has towards the rule of law. If you took note he was speaking about the next Supreme court appointee as a vehicle to overturn Roe v Wade.

    I think you miss the point: he is the President Elect. Obama and HRC are not on equal footing, right?

    SNL is funny but righteous indignation only goes so far. I think the real bubble consists of members of the left thinking that conservatives will be respectful, open minded, eager for bridges to be built.

    Experience indicates the opposite. This is not a country of unity, it is a country of competition.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I doubt Trump wants to get pulled into the “culture wars” any further than his campaign rhetoric entrenched him–in fact I think at some point he must have realized he’d gotten himself in over his head. I don’t think he’s intellectually equipped to deal with this stuff, which is the main reason we shouldn’t hold our breath for a response from him re Adam Yauch Park or any other now-famous act of vandalism.

    I think what Doug is driving at is that the community response to the vandalism seemed like it was suited to a deliberate sociopolitical message, perhaps even using the act of vandalism as an opportunity or platform from which to launch very public messages of “we are a progressively-minded community, we don’t tolerate racism, etc.”

    But ultimately, I think, there is nothing to lose by the way we (as a community) responded. It felt good. Speaking as a classically-trained artist who condones well-executed and intelligently conceived graffiti, I think there’s a lot to be said for neighborhoods coming together in feel-good ways, and at the same time I feel that bad spray-painted vandalism does the same disservice to graffiti that bad painting with stupid messages does to art in general.

  • Michael

    Or it was a swastika with the words ‘go trump’ in a public park.

    Lets not over think this.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I have a master’s degree in over-thinking. It’s what I do. :)

  • Michael

    Fair enough.

  • Doug Biviano

    It was a great and appropriate response except for the one asterisk * Brad Lander scapegoating Trump Supporters as a group, without a shred of evidence and driving more hate and division. Bad form.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I agree that it’s inaccurate and unfair to paint with so broad a brush, label people according to how they vote without teasing out the nuances of why they chose to vote that way, etc., but that ship has sailed and Lander is hardly its captain.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    As I said, I think it was probably adolescent mischief. I imagine white supremacists wouldn’t have botched the swastikas–twice–and the location and timing (quiet, secluded part of the neighborhood, probably done during normal sleeping hours) suggest it wasn’t any kind of political activist.

    As I also said, and here I think you and Doug and I are in perfect agreement, the neighborhood’s response was still entirely appropriate, necessary, and correct. We should tolerate NEITHER stupid acts of adolescent vandalism (especially if they happen to exploit contemporaneous hot-buttons) NOR threatening acts of hateful messaging, and our opposition to these cannot be overstated.

    So, joking aside, I hope you’ll agree that’s not “over thinking”.

  • SongBirdNYC

    Just posted my re-cap!

  • AEB

    …and out pours incoherent but nonetheless toxic thoughts. Excuse me, “thoughts.”

    This triggered regurgitation perfectly mimics the response of the haters-in-the-woodwork who suddenly act-out because they’ve been given permission to do so.

    And by whom, might that be? Hmmm?

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I’m surprised, to be honest. I thought his IP had been banned from the site. I am an artist and have to say that I’m against banning anyone from expressing themselves, but did I miss him? Nope.

  • AEB

    The thought that he’s always there–or here–LURKING….

  • WSW

    You mean there is a very, very very LARGE chance this incident is of very questionable origin…given the huge history of these events, after serious investigation, being arranged hoaxes. Arch, you know or should know, that the whole Skokie incident for example, was a total hoax/put-up…

  • Michael

    I thought a lot about this discussion… and here is the last comment I will make. When conservatives, right-leaners see something they don’t like they are comfortable discussing the ‘possible’ perpetrators and condemn the behavior. When progressives see similar acts, they blame themselves. Very telling.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I appreciate your picking up on that pattern, and while I can certainly see it too, I notice other patterns as well. More importantly, at a qualitative level I see more similarities than differences in the reactive follies of both groups.

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