Swastikas Painted on Brooklyn Playground, Teens Arrested (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: This is something that's literally reminding us of Nazi Germany.

[00:00:03] Speaker 2: Dozens of swastikas were painted on a children's playground in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. In one of two incidents at the same playground, the NYPD says 57 swastikas were painted in red, blue and yellow. Adolf Hitler was also scrawled on a handball court wall. Earlier in the week, officers found about 16 swastikas painted on slides, walls and the ground. The anti-Semitic vandalism happened at Gravesend Park in Brooklyn, in the Borough Park neighborhood.

[00:00:30] Speaker 3: One of the most densely packed neighborhoods of Holocaust survivors in New York City, so this is particularly offensive.

[00:00:38] Speaker 2: City and state leaders condemned the incidents, with New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani saying in a statement he was, quote, sickened by this anti-Semitic vandalism. And happening amid a general rise in anti-Semitic incidents over the past few years in the city.

[00:00:51] Speaker 1: The only thing they know what they're doing is something anti-Semitic. Exactly what a Nazi swastika stands for or Hitler, et cetera, et cetera. I don't even know if they know the history.

[00:01:00] Speaker 2: The NYPD says two 15-year-olds were arrested Thursday and both face aggravated harassment charges, with one of the teens also facing charges of criminal mischief as a hate crime. The department's hate crime task force is investigating both incidents.