Antisemitic graffiti found in two Nassau County parks investigated as a hate crime

Two separate instances of antisemitic graffiti found in Nassau County within 24 hours of each other are being investigated as hate crimes, Nassau officials said on Friday.

A swastika and vulgar images drawn on a building at Rath Park in Franklin Square were found by a passerby, who reported it around 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, police said. Another vulgar image was drawn on the other side of the handball court.

Then, during checks of Coes Neck Park in Baldwin, a swastika was discovered Friday morning on a popular children’s toy, which allows individuals to make shapes with alternating-colored tiles, at a playground.

"We're standing together, not only as town officials, but with the head of our law enforcement agency, to express not only our outrage, but to, again, let people know we have zero tolerance for antisemitism in the town of Hempstead," Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin said at a news conference in front of the graffiti in Franklin Square.

Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said she grew up going to this park and learned how to swim in the public pool across from the playground. She called the graffiti "disgusting and outrageous."

"When Don called me and told me this was here at Rath Park, a family-centric place that someone's trying to send this disturbing message, I got angry," she said. "We will find who did this, and we will prosecute him to or her to the full extent of the law."

Clavin said he was as outraged as he'd been almost a year ago when antisemitic messages were found on a fence across the street from an elementary school, on a display of Israeli hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

"This has gone too far. This is all too normal in our area, but we have to take steps in the town of Hempstead to show our displeasure," Clavin said. "You're going to be found and you're going to be held accountable, and that's it."

Clavin and Donnelly, along with town Clerk Kate Murray and Councilman Tom Muscarella, painted over the swastika, returning the building to a solid cerulean blue.

Donnelly also said Nassau police would provide extra security at houses of worship during the Passover holiday, which begin April 12.

Anna Kritzelis, 38, of Franklin Square, had brought her 3-year-old and 5-month-old to the playground on Thursday morning and learned about the graffiti from the news conference.

"It's horrific," Kritzelis said. "I don't want my children around that. I mean, they're young now, and they don't know what it is, but they're impressionable and it's really disturbing."

U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) said in a statement: "I am deeply disturbed that antisemitic graffiti was found at Franklin Square’s Rath Park and Baldwin’s Coes Neck Park and I unequivocally condemn these despicable acts of hate. Antisemitism has no place in Nassau County."