A collaboration between a lifestyle boutique and a street artist resulted in a police investigation after posters featuring a crossed-out swastika appeared on a Brooklyn street. Two people who put up the posters are now wanted for aggravated harassment.
Initially, police called the posters anti-Semitic but then corrected their statement to say "the posters were not anti-Semitic."
The NYPD says that the postering occurred on August 22nd, at around 6 p.m., on a Driggs Avenue wall between North 7th and North 8th Streets in Williamsburg. On August 23rd, Alife shared an image of some officers looking at the wall:
Alife also has Instagram Stories of the posters in the wild. Here's Hypebeast's description of the collection with KATSU, "Dubbed 'The Climate,' the collaborative range is comprised of one hoodie and two T-shirt designs. KATSU’s signature, single-stroke skull motif adorns one tee while an anti-swastika graphic is observed on a portion of the hoodie and a white tee. Accompanying the merchandise are limited edition signed posters." (The hoodie was priced at $138, T-shirt at $42, and signed posters at $199.)
Police released surveillance footage of the suspects, who are both described as being 25-30 years old and about 5'10", with medium builds; one with dark facial hair was last seen wearing a gray shirt, green camouflage pants and black/white shoes while the other with short brown hair was last seen wearing a gray shirt, green camouflage pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
