Brooklyn Man Guilty of Swastika Graffiti, Kill Jews Fliers, Guns

Brooklyn Heights resident Ivaylo Ivanov used to like to stay busy. When he wasn't wandering the neighborhood distributing fliers encouraging people to "Kill All Jews" and reminding them that "US hates you," he was spray-painting swastikas on synagogues and tending to his impressive home arsenal. You may recall that police discovered his cache—which included explosives, a semiautomatic handgun, a sniper rifle, machine guns, ammunition, and a pipe bomb hidden in a Nerf football—after Ivanov called them when he shot himself in the hand. Well, Ivanov is going to have to find other ways of passing the time in prison; he finally pleaded guilty to weapons possession and criminal mischief as a hate crime, and faces up to 18 years in prison. Of course, many influential books have been written from behind bars.

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By John Del Signore in News on February 4, 2010 4:37 PM

Comments [rss]

jpeditor

With his views, he's probably a Gothamist member.

Awesomer

Where did everyone get the idea he's Russian? His name is unmistakably Bulgarian; this also strongly suggests he isn't Jewish. I'm a little shocked at how quickly people accept his claims of Jewishness (especially the NYT). Here's the scenario: undeniably crazy guy gets arrested and is charged with, among other things, anti-Semitic hate crimes. He says, "Actually, I'm really Jewish. Ex-Mossad, dontcha know." Yup, real credible.

SP

FTW

NannyState

"Of course, many influential books have been written from behind bars."

D'oh!-stoyevsky.

darkdrseuss

I was there the day they were taking out his munitions from his place off of remsen st. Overheard from the ESU captain: guy is exisraeli military who went off on the deep end. They had to search the sewers because he was ranting he had boobytrapped the area. From what I saw, it was unfounded, but the dude was definitely psychotic.

dgeee

Ex Israeli military, how sweet. I guess he isn't jewish then...

Clarice City

Is he Russian? As I remember, the Russians have been trying to drive the Jews of of Russia fo rsome time now. Antisemitism is pretty out of control there from what I hear. I knew a few classmates in High School that were in the US because they were Jewish (and Seventh Day Adventists) and the Russians drove them out.

silver

He is Russian Jewish. Our own jewish commenters on Gothamist have admitted that jewish community leaders scaring jews with persecution is part of the jewish agenda. See http://gothamist.com/2010/01/14/terror_trial_suspect_keep_jews_off.php#comment-2444177

CR

So you're willing to make the argument that all Jews, or even the majority of them, are willing to say that "scaring jews with persecution is part of the Jewish agenda" based on *one* comment on this site?

wingedearth

This guy is probably Jewish. It usually turns out to be Jewish people that spraypaint Swastikas around public places these days.

just saying

Like it or not, wingedearth may have a point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/nyregion/22arrest.html

CR

He has a point that *this* guy was Jewish, but not that "it usually turns out to be Jewish people that spraypaint Swastikas around public places these days." There's no proof of that. I'm also calling bullshit on this guy *actually* being Jewish - the majority of Russians who immigrate to Israel are not even remotely Jewish, they just buy papers on the black market in Russia so that they can get the hell out of the stinking shithole that is the motherland.

eat vegans

Right. We Jews are always painting swastikas around public places these days and handing out "Kill The Jews" flyers. Just like we invented the Holocaust just to get attention. Wingedearth, do everyone a favor and kill yourself.

DanielJ

Hear hear!

DanielJ

Good strategy- when in doubt, blame it on the Jews. Ass.

NattyB

This guy must've had a real bad lawyer.

Weapons charges can get you a lot of time. See Plaxico.

But distributing fliers that say "Kill All Jews" while, ya know, not in good taste, is protected by the First Amendemnt. Dumbass shouldn't have plead guilty on that one.

SP

You are both wrong. First Amendment rights do not cover incitation to violence or threats of any kind. Your rights do allow to say racist shit like "Jews are subhuman" or "Jews are the root of all evil" or whatever. You DO NOT have the right to say "kill all the Jews" or "I will kill you."

imadick

actually, it is illegal. thought-crimes are legislated when associated with any other crime. assault= go to jail for a little. assault while screaming a racial slur= go to jail for a long time.

DanielJ

I saw a whole bunch of little slips of paper with KILL JEWS handwritten on them in my neighborhood a couple weeks ago. Really unsettling. There's no place for that in this city. Glad they got the crazy bastard.