Top Forest Hills cop says NYPD monitoring neonazi vandalism
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Captain Joseph E. Cappelmann is the commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, which polices Forest Hills and Rego Park. Photo via NYPD
Rachel Vick
The commanding officer of a Forest Hills police precinct says cops are aware of neonazi stickers placed along 108th Street, but cannot intervene without actually seeing people stick the hateful propaganda on public property.
Captain Joseph Cappelmann, commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, said officers have canvassed 108th Street to look out for stickers promoting Patriot Front, a white nationalist group founded in 2017. Community residents have shared photos of the stickers, as well as images of a person allegedly placing the decals on a lamppost, the Eagle previously reported.
“We had neighborhood coordination officers go out to 108th and canvass to see if they saw any other stickers,” Cappelman said.“But to post a sticker, even if it is offensive and disgusting, is really just an unlawful posting of a sign. If we were there when someone doing it would just initiate summons and throw out the materials.”
Cappelman said membership in a hate group is not illegal based on the First Amendment, but he said 112th Precinct officers are working with the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau to monitor potential threats.
Patriot Front members have been actively promoting their neonazi organization throughout the city in recent months, unfurling a banner over the Belt Parkway in Bay Ridge and gluing posters on walls in Park Slope.
“I looked [the group] up and saw that they had done that in other areas of the city this year, so I'm alarmed by that,’” Cappelmann said. “I don't want any type of hate group coming in here to disturb an otherwise peaceful community.”
Forest Hills college student Ari Sverdlov took photos of two boys on bikes placing Patriot Front stickers along 108th Street on Sunday. Sverdlov said he encountered the two boys when he went outside to take down Patriot Front decals he had seen earlier in the day.
“He had placed it right over the face of a rabbi on a poster,” Sverdlov wrote on Facebook, along with photos of one of the alleged vandals. “I’m not really sure what to do about it, didn’t get to do much in the moment. He and an even younger kid were together, both on bikes.”
Capplemann speculated that the boys may be recruiting new members or trying to establish a local presence.
On the other hand, he said, the boys may not even recognize the group’s hateful ideology. It’s possible that they “answered a Craigslist ad and got paid to put up the signs,” he said.
