Unusual Twist In Brooklyn Swastika Spree



The NY Times' Michael Wilson reports on some dubious acts of desecration in Tuesday's edition.

It looked at first like a disturbingly busy weekend of hate crime, the swastikas in white spray paint appearing on synagogues and Jewish centers in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn and parts of Queens.

"We've certainly engaged our Hate Crimes Task Force in this investigation," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday. The police had even been hit: two of the swastikas had been painted on radio cars in the 60th Precinct.

But later yesterday, the police learned that the vandalism appeared to have been fueled by a different kind of hatred and intolerance: that of an ex-wife over her former husband's new spouse.

Late yesterday, the Hate Crimes Task Force arrested Olga Abramovich, 49, of 101st Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The police said that she had become enraged when her former husband, Lev Abramovich, 50, of Howard Beach, Queens, married a 35-year-old. Several swastikas were accompanied by personal, spray-painted attacks at the new couple, the police said. Mr. Abramovich and his wife are Jewish, and the suspect is Russian Orthodox, the police said.

Ms. Abramovich was charged with 20 counts of criminal mischief, and a can of spray paint was recovered in her trunk, said Paul J. Browne, deputy police commissioner. He said she told the police that she used black on the mostly white police cars because it showed up better, and white for the other swastikas because it was her favorite color. She marked the police cars because she had received a summons, Mr. Browne said.

While we're on the subject of poor tagging, I'm still wondering why the local authorities never chose to paint over all the "88"'s scattered throughout one of CSTB's previous London stomping grounds. Perhaps the police thought some local youth were just overzealous Eric Lindros fans.

Much as I hate to generalize about persons whose entire ethos is based on generalizations, perhaps some of these intense hater types are just plain lonely.

Posted: Tue - October 19, 2004 at 01:28 AM      

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