NEW YORK (AP) - A state hate crimes task force will assist a New York City police investigation into anti-Black and anti-Semitic graffiti found on a Manhattan college campus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
The graffiti, including a swastika and racist statements, was scrawled on the side of New York University’s Silver Center For Arts & Science around 1:35 p.m. on Sept. 12, police said.
The vandal fled on foot and has not been caught, police said. They say he is wanted for an aggravated harassment hate crime.
NYU is urging anyone with information to come forward.
The university is “disgusted by the racist and anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled on one our classroom buildings,” spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement. “It was a shock to see a swastika–long an unambiguous symbol of hatred and white supremacy–drawn on one of our buildings.
Cuomo said he was “appalled” to see media reports about the graffiti and was directing the state police Hate Crimes Task Force to assist in the investigation.
“The fact that Rosh Hashanah begins tonight makes this bigoted graffiti all the more hurtful, as does the placement on a building dedicated to education,” Cuomo said in a statement. “This is not who we are as New Yorkers.”
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