City Councilman James Gennaro (c.), Harpreet Toor (2nd from l.) and others listen as Hillcrest Jewish Center Rabbi Moti Fuchs (r.) speaks at meeting on hate crime in Fresh Meadows.Zero tolerance for hate crimes. That's what elected officials and religious leaders asked for on Monday in the Fresh Meadows office of City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Queens).
"Vandalism and violence are terrible crimes under any circumstances, but there's a deeper cause for alarm when they're perpetrated out of ethnic or religious hate," Gennaro said.
Indeed, several hate crimes against religious and ethnic groups have taken place recently in Gennaro's Council District 24. Concern about the long-term consequences - and a desire to unite his constituents against such despicable acts - prompted the councilman to call the meeting in his office.
"In the past two months we've been going through a rough patch with some episodes which are much unlike our community," Gennaro said. "And I thought it was a great opportunity to bring different communities together in a special way to support each other against hatred, stupidity and intolerance. The meeting was a real cathartic experience."
If something can be said for the vandals, it is that they did not discriminate. Their victims were Sikhs, Catholics and Jews.
On May 5, a statue of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, the first Filipino Catholic martyr and saint, was chopped off at the ankles and stolen from a spiritual center in Jamaica Hills ("the most peaceful place you can think of," Gennaro said).
The councilman was told by the Police Department that the hate crimes unit was investigating the robbery, but more than two months have gone by and the thieves have not been caught.
"We call on whoever did this to return our statue, and we call on the police to put as many resources as they can towards solving this crime," said Nick Libramonte, executive director of the San Lorenzo Ruiz Center.
A swastika was drawn on the rear passenger door of a car parked at the corner of Jewel Ave. and 161st St. in Fresh Meadows, according to what the 107th Precinct told Gennaro's office. It was found the morning of July 3. The hate crimes unit also is investigating this incident.
"We strongly protest all attempts to foment hatred between people," said Rabbi Shlomo Hochberg, spiritual leader of Young Israel of Jamaica Estates and president of the Rabbinical Council of America, who spoke passionately in defense of Catholics and Sikhs.
As we have written before, on June 9, the religiously mandated long hair of a 12-year-old Sikh girl was cut against her will by another student at PS 219 in Flushing. On June 6 at Richmond Hill High School, a Sikh boy, Jagmohan Singh Premi, 18, was punched in the face by a classmate who tried to remove his turban.
"The Sikh community is a peace-loving community, and stands united with others in denouncing violence against anyone, especially for religious or cultural reasons," Harpreet Singh Toor, president of the Sikh Educational Foundation, said on Monday.
GENNARO SAID he was satisfied with the results of the meeting, during which strong bonds were formed between the attending leaders.
"Queens, as the most diverse county in the nation, has a special obligation to show the rest of the country how it is done, how we can all live together," Gennaro said. "Everybody was concerned about one another, and everyone agreed that in Queens, a hate crime against one community is a crime against us all.
"In that sense, we are all Jewish and Catholic and Sikh."
