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Gianaris, civil rights groups speak out after spate of bias incidents

Gianaris, civil rights groups speak out after spate of bias incidents
By Bill Parry

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating a possible bias crime that occurred Saturday night in Long Island City in which a group of three white men attacked a Muslim teenager. The 17-year-old was sitting outside 21-35 21st St.just after 7 p.m. when the assailants approached and one yelled, “I don’t want no Muslims (expletive) sitting on this bench,” according to an NYPD spokeswoman.

A scuffle ensued and one of the men struck the victim with a bottle to the face, police said. The victim was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center where he was listed in stable condition with an eye injury.

The attack comes after two other bias incidents in western Queens. On Nov. 17, a Muslim Uber driver recorded hateful remarks directed towards his religion by another driver at the intersection of Crescent Street and 41st Avenue and on Nov. 11 at the 30th Avenue N/W subway station in Astoria, two swastikas were drawn on the wall.

State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) joined civil rights groups near the intersection on 41st Avenue Tuesday and called for action.

“This is in the most tolerant and diverse corner of the world that these things are happening,” Gianaris said. “If these things are happening right here in Queens, in New York City, you can imagine it is happening elsewhere. We’ve seen an outbreak since the presidential elections where bigots are feeling empowered and we have a president-elect who is doing little or nothing to slow it down or speak against these attacks while he has no problem talking about Broadway shows offending him. He doesn’t say anything about the fact that people are enciting hatred.”

Gianaris shared remarks from Chris Cody, an adjunct professor at St. John’s University who speaks Arabic and was a passenger of the Uber driver after the incident. The driver Mohhamed had captured the abusive, obscenity-filled trirade from a white man in a white SUV shouting, “Trump is president, [expletive]! You you can kiss your [expletive] visa goodbye, scumbag.” he said. “They’ll deport you soon. Don’t worry, you [expletive] terrorist.”

The incident was not reported to the 114th Precinct, according to Deputy Inspector Peter Fortune. City Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) said, “Any New Yorker who is the victim of harassment and discrimination shouldn’t be afraid to make a report through official channels so that we have a record to fight against this intolerance.”

Mohammed sent Cody the video. Cody passed it to a friend, a Woodside actor named Karim Metwaly who posted a clip on his Facebook fan page. That video has been viewed more than 3 million times.

While Metwaly could not be reached for comment, Gianaris shared Cody’s remarks.

“In short, I felt ashamed as a New Yorker and as an American that he had to experience such hate and I felt I owed it to him and others to share,” he wrote. “This is a teachable moment and I hope is serves as a wake-up call that an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The NYPD announced Sunday there were a 328 hate crimes in New York City through Nov. 13, a 31 percent increase from the previous year. There was both an increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate crimes.

“Our community stands up today to say that we will not tolerate these attacks,” Make the Road New York Deputy Director Theo Oshiro said. “President-elect Trump has fanned the flames of hate and intolerance across this country, and we must take action to stop this wave of violence. A critical step is withdrawing the appointments of Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions — two infamous racist and anti-immigrant figures — from his new administration. Their consideration for high-level appointments in the White House indicates Trump’s continued acceptance of white supremacy and extremism, and we must reverse course.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.