HELL’S KITCHEN — The Trump administration’s failure to call the recent killing of a black man in Hell’s Kitchen an act of terrorism and a hate crime could “embolden” others to commit similar crimes, local leaders said.
Baltimore military veteran James Harris Jackson last week was indicted on charges of murder as a crime of terrorism after prosecutors said he confessed to fatally stabbing Hell’s Kitchen resident Timothy Caughman as part of a planned murder spree targeting black men.
A letter Community Board 4 plans to send to District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill asks the pair to “use [their] good offices” to convince President Donald Trump’s administration to condemn the attack.
Nearly a week after Jackson turned himself into police, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that hate crimes "should be called out in the most reprehensible way,” but declined to comment specifically on Caughman’s murder.
“As of yet, the White House has not publicly characterized and condemned the murder of Mr. Caughman as a white supremacist hate crime and terrorist act,” a draft of CB4’s letter reads. “This lack of condemnation sends the wrong message. And may, we fear, embolden others.
“Had Mr. Jackson been a Muslim terrorist who assassinated a man on the sidewalk at 36th Street and Ninth Avenue, we have no doubt there would have been a swift reaction from Washington,” the letter adds.
Along with addressing the current administration, the board also raised concerns about safety in the neighborhood, asking O’Neill and Vance whether white supremacists are included on terrorist watch lists like the Terrorist Screening Database.
“In the wake of this heinous murder, CB4 needs to know what strategies are in place or will be implemented to prevent future acts of terror in our community,” the draft letter reads.
Board members also took issue with a statement Mayor Bill de Blasio released a day after the murder, in which he called it “an assault on what makes this the greatest city in the world: our inclusiveness and our diversity.”
“It was indeed an assault on our values of inclusiveness and diversity,” the draft letter says. “But we must not lose sight of the fact that it was an attack on an innocent individual.”
Caughman, who lived on West 36th Street for the past two decades, was killed because he was black, board member Jean-Daniel Noland stressed at a meeting last week.
“[Jackson] did not come up to attack tolerance or values — he came up to kill black people. And I think it’s important that we say that,” Noland said. “If he had come up and killed white women… we would not say this was an attack on diversity.”
