The Brooklyn Paper has an update about the vandalism at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburg. Because a statue of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus were defaced with what looks like Kiss masks that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley wear, 94th Precinct Commanding Officer Deputy Inspector Terence Hurson said, “We are looking for a KISS fan." In other words: TOTALLY Kiss Army. more ›

Police have charged a suspect in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old Bronx father who was mugged for $15. Devon Downs, 29, was charged with second-degree murder and robbery in the death of former cab driver Bimal Chanda last fall. An accomplice who also joined in on beating Chanda with a metal object has not been caught yet. “The family is really happy to hear about the arrest, they never thought this day would come,” said Chanda family friend and spokesman Mohammed Ali. “Detectives told us it was a really hard case and that it was hard to identify the suspects.” more ›

Some people give their WiFi network wacky ironic names to discourage neighbors from using it, like "Free Viruses" and "We_Can_Hear_You_Having_Sex." Over in Teaneck, N.J., they push the envelope a little bit, at least at the local recreation center, where someone gave the WiFi network at the Richard Rodda Community Center a very offensive name. "When I first saw it, I said, 'Did that say what I thought it said?," a local woman tells the Daily News. "I was shocked, hurt. I felt harassed." Which is understandable, because the WiFi in question was named "F--- All Jews And N----." more ›

A Chelsea building manager was arrested today on allegations that he made a series of anti-Semitic phone calls and scrawled hateful messages and symbols on apartment doors in the neighborhood. Two people say David Haddad, 56, made threatening and anti-Semitic phone calls to an 80-year-old Brooklyn woman Brooklyn last month. Investigators also say Haddad, who is "Jewish but not practicing," according to one police source, called an unidentified woman on January 10th and threatened her in her Chelsea apartment building. more ›

Police are investigating a rash of weekend hate crimes in Midwood, Brooklyn, where swastikas were spray painted on three buildings, along with the words "Die Jews" on a garage door. The garage door vandalism occurred at a private residence located 100 feet away Assemblyman Dov Hikind's home, and the politician says the latest outburst of anti-Semitism has local residents increasingly alarmed. Midwood has one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors in America, and Hikind says, "You wouldn't believe the comments that I hear. 'Does this mean something? Is this the beginning of something?' I tell them no because this is America." more ›

Three weeks after a Parks Department worker found a black doll hanging by a metal chain noose at the Parks Department's Bronx headquarters, a Parks employee has been arrested. Fariz Ahmemulic, 28, has been charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime. The doll was discovered in a garage last month by Anthony Crum, a 60-year-old black Parks worker who has also accused his supervisors of trying to cover up the crime before it became a police matter. more ›

Remember back in 2010 when two young Staten Island men decided to beat and try to rob a gay man in the bathroom of the legendary gay bar The Stonewall Inn? Well, 18-year-old Christopher Orlando, the younger of the pair, was sentenced to 60 days in jail yesterday for his part in the attack. Meanwhile his older partner in crime, Matthew Francis (whose sister, you might recall, is "a full-blown lesbian"), was sentenced to two years in jail on similar charges assault as a hate crime and attempted robbery charges last September. more ›

The NYPD is investigating a possible hate crime at the Parks Department's Bronx headquarters, where a black baby doll was found hanging by a metal chain noose yesterday morning. Geoffrey Croft at NYC Park Advocates reports that the 15 inch doll was discovered by a sixty-year-old black male Parks Department employee who had just returned to work from being out sick. One Parks employee tells Croft the man was traumatized and "looked like he was going to have a stroke." Three KKKs were also found scratched in a unisex bathroom on the first floor, sources tell Croft. more ›

The NYPD Hate Crime Unit is investigating swastikas discovered scrawled inside an elevator in a Williamsburg apartment building. CBS reports that the swastikas were found inside an elevator at 70 Ross Street in Williamsburg. According to the Post, the same building was targeted earlier this month, when a swastika was etched into the button control panel of an elevator. more ›

With Friday's burnt cars and anti-Semitic scrawls still fresh in their memory, Midwood community members and politicians took to the streets yesterday to make clear that they won't be standing for such attacks. "I feel wrong if I don't come and do something, it's Jews, you come out, we may not know them but we're all one, we're all together," explained one resident of the heavily Jewish stretch of Ocean Parkway. And while police have still made no arrests in the presumed hate crime, they have high hopes of getting DNA or fingerprints off the myriad bottles and gas containers left at the scene. more ›

Yesterday morning in Midwood, on the anniversary of the end of Kristallnacht, vandals torched three cars, tried to burn a fourth, and scrawled anti-semitic graffiti on a nearby van and benches. The attack took place around 5:30 a.m. in the heavily Orthodox Jewish section of Ocean Parkway. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, along with 66th NYPD Police Precinct, are currently investigating the vandalism as a hate crime. “I think it’s a jealousy of wealth, and then the use of anti-Semitism as a way to express that jealousy,” Bobby Tebeli, whose mother’s BMW X5 was burned, told the Post. more ›

A Brooklyn Hasidic man who has been in Israel for the past three years, avoiding NYC authorities, will be extradited back to the U.S. to face charges related to the beating of a young black man in Crown Heights. The Daily News reports, "A Jerusalem court Thursday approved the extradition of Yitzhak Shuchat, 28, who’s been indicted for assault as a hate crime and other counts for the alleged baton beatdown of Andrew Charles in 2008." more ›

The family of the Bronx man who was mugged and beaten over the weekend for $15, and died a few days later of his injuries, claim the attack may have been a hate crime. Family members and neighbors gathered last night outside the funeral home where services for 59-year-old Bimal Chanda, who was Bengali, were held. While police say there's no indication of a hate crime, Chanda's widow believes there had to be a different motive, since the two muggers brutally beat him, yet left his wallet filled with credit cards and $90 in cash, only taking $15 from his pocket: "I've been hearing things, from other family, friends and relatives, other Bengali people, they've been getting mugged on a daily basis, and it's really not acceptable," one family member told NBC. more ›

After declaring last week that she wanted to meet President Obama to discuss bullying, Lady Gaga did in fact meet him last night—after paying $38,500 to attend a fundraiser held at Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's home in Silicon Valley. A pool report from the event says, "At 8:03 p.m. Lady Gaga entered ... delicately walking on sky-high heels (she towered over everyone, a good 2 feet taller than POTUS)." more ›

Sigh: The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is investigating a "partially burnt Koran" that was sent to a Bronx mosque. This comes days after those opposed to building a new mosque and Islamic community center a few blocks from the World Trade Center convened for another protest. more ›

A Muslim family walking in Boonton, NJ last night was shot at, killing the 27-year-old mother and wounding the 26-year-old father. The Brooklyn couple's three-year-old son was unharmed but was reportedly "splattered in blood." Now police are investigating whether it was a bias attack. more ›

A white man claims he was beaten and robbed by four men (and a fellow straphanger) on a train taking him home to the Bronx early Sunday morning and now the police are investigating to see if the crime had a racial bias. 29-year-old leather accessories designer Jason Fordell was first taunted and then attacked and robbed by a group of black men on the train to the Bronx just before 5 a.m. The Daily News reports that four of the men remain at large but police have arrested one Brooklyn man who reportedly joined in on the attack for kicks. more ›

Police are currently investigating whether an attack on a 56-year-old burka-wearing woman in Harlem was a hate crime. Aissatou Diallo claims that on Wednesday two women, a 28-year-old black woman and a 60-year-old white woman, attacked her on West 141st Street after she asked one to stop taking pictures of her headdress. more ›

Cops headed to a Mill Basin synagogue in order to find a Hasidic Jew accused of "pouring beer on a newlywed neighbor, calling her an 'Arab terrorist' and pummeling her husband," according to the Daily News. Simchon Schwartz, 46, who was apparently hiding in the synagogue and tried to resist arrest, even kicked out a police cruiser window! more ›

A grand jury today indicted the roommate of a Rutgers student who committed suicide after he realized that his homosexual encounter had been recorded on webcam. The 15-count indictment against Dharun Ravi, which you can read below, accuses the former Rutgers student of bias, invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering. Another student, Molly Wei, was not indicted "at this time"—prosecutors say Ravi watched roommate Tyler Clementi's liaison via webcam from Wei's dorm room. (Wei already faces invasion of privacy charges, but her charges have not been presented to the grand jury.) more ›

The two Staten Island children facing felony hate crime charges aren't getting any special treatment because of their age. Daramy Osman, the 11-year-old boy who was the first to get collared, has been kept in a juvenile detention facility since last Wednesday. On Friday night, his alleged accomplice, 13-year-old Krista Callender, was also arrested, and although she was initially released into the custody of her mother, yesterday a judge decided the girl was too dangerous to be on the loose. "Based on [Callender's] history, I do believe she is capable of committing another crime," Judge Helene Sacco ruled in Staten Island Family Court yesterday. more ›

The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force has rounded up the alleged accomplice to the alleged juvenile hijab-ripper on Staten Island. Krystal Callender, 13, was collared on Friday night and slapped with the same charges that 12-year-old Osman Daramy faces: felony assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime. The two are accused of shoving a female classmate to the ground, punching her, kicking her, and trying to pull off her hijab while asking, "Are you a Muslim?" (She is, but Daramy's dad says his son is also Muslim, and therefore it can't be a hate crime.) more ›

Yesterday, police arrested 21-year-old Anthony Bray in connection with a brutal West Village gay bashing that left victim Damian Furtch with two black eyes and needing multiple stitches. Furtch claims his attackers yelled anti-gay slurs while beating him, but Bray also claims to be gay. However, Furtch rightly says that it makes no difference what his attacker's sexual orientation is, because "hate crime" or not it was still a crime: "The fact that the attacker in custody alleges he is gay does not change the fact that he shouted anti-gay slurs while attacking me," Furtch says. "I look forward to the criminal trial where all of the accurate details will come out." more ›

11-year-old Osman Daramy, a Staten Island sixth-grader who faces felony hate crime charges for assaulting a Muslim classmate, appeared in Family Court yesterday in the Bronx. Previously, the Post ran a sad photo of Daramy getting marched out of school in handcuffs and ankle shackles, and today the tabloid follows up with a photo of Daramy defiantly flipping off the tabloid's photographer. We realize Daramy—who was born in a refugee camp Sierra Leone—has his problems, but we've got to give the kid credit for giving the Post the salute it deserves. more ›

The father of the 11-year-old boy who was marched out of school in handcuffs (and ankle chains!) yesterday on felony hate crime charges is defending his son in the media. The sixth grader, Osman Daramy, had allegedly shoved a female classmate to the ground yesterday, punched her, kicked her, and tried to pull off her hijab while asking, "Are you a Muslim?" The assault, which left the unidentified girl with bruises and a cut lip, was allegedly the culmination of months of abuse perpetrated by Daramy, who, sources say, also cut a classmate's hair during a scissor "rampage" Monday. But his father, Frank Davis, insists the school and the cops are out to get his son. more ›

On Sunday, 26-year-old Damian Furtch was beaten outside the West 4th Street McDonald's in the West Village by two men spewing homophobic slurs, possibly because of his brightly colored clothing. Last night, police released a video of the beating (below), which left Furtch with two black eyes and multiple stitches. He said, "The attack against me is part of the larger issue of violence against gay and transgender people in New York City." more ›