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Nazi and Anti-Refugee Graffiti Spotted on Greenpoint Nature Walk

By Gwynne Hogan | December 8, 2016 4:38pm
 The graffiti was reported to police on Thursday morning, police confirmed.
Newtown Creek Nature Walk
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GREENPOINT — Swastikas, "Go Home Refugees," "Heil Hitler" and other vandalism was found carved and scribbled on stone benches and tables at a nature walk near the Newtown Creek waterfront Thursday morning, police said.

The vandals wrote "Bernie f--king lost," "Hillary f--king lost," and "Now begins 1000 years of TRUMP!," according to photos of the graffiti provided to DNAinfo New York by Willis Elkins, a project manager at Newtown Creek Alliance.

They also scribbled numbers "14/88" which refers to the 14 words in the white pride slogan, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The 88 alludes to the eighth letter of the alphabet or "HH" short for "Heil Hitler," according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Willis soon reported the vandalism to police, he said.

Police said they were investigating it as a hate crime and no arrests had been made as of Thursday afternoon.

The Department of Environmental Preservation which maintains the Newtown Creek Nature Walk that's on the waterfront by their waste treatment facility, didn't respond to request for comment immediately. 

The vandalism is part of 36 percent post-election spike in hate crimes that the NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce called "concerning" in late November.

Nearby in a Williamsburg housing project, home to a large Hasidic Jewish population the words Nazi KKK and Swastikas were found in late November, DNAinfo reported.

Muslim women with hijabs including an MTA worker and an NYPD officer have been targeted.

At a media roundtable earlier Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio had addressed the surge in post-election hate crimes, saying they were a "huge problem."

"It’s generated by the rhetoric that was used in the election. It’s not a surprise," he said. "We are going to be address that not only in word, but in deed — very aggressively — prosecuting any individuals who create a hate crime."

Here's our map of all the post-election hate crimes, we've been able to confirm.