Jews and Muslims have this in common: Hate crimes against both groups are skyrocketing in New York City this year.
Antisemitic incidents through Aug. 25 soared 74% from the same time last year (240 from 138) and attacks against Muslims ballooned 357% (32 from 7), according to NYPD data requested by The Post.
Overall, hate crime across the Big Apple surged 29% (427 from 332), the sobering stats show.
Manhattan leads the city with 174 hate crime incidents, followed by Brooklyn (157), Queens (64), the Bronx and Staten Island (both 16).
Queens was the sole borough that saw a drop in hate crimes — a 36% reduction to 64 from 87, although three spray-painted swastikas were found in Woodhaven Aug. 14.
The department noted arrests made by the Hate Crime Task Force are up 23% this year, to 177 from 144 a year ago.
One bigoted thug who set upon a man in Central Park has not been caught.
“I was very, very lucky,” admitted 70-year-old Allan Ripp, who in July was pounded by a hate-spewing Citi Bike rider who called him a “f—king Jew pig” and threatened to kill him.
The mad bigot — who is still on the loose — attacked Ripp shortly after 6 p.m. on July 13 on a pedestrian pathway next to the West 86th Street entrance to the reservoir. Ripp was walking his daughter’s dog, Biscotti, near a bridge at the park’s reservoir, when he was body-checked by the biker. Ripp then dared to chastise the cyclist for riding on the walking path — and the biker went ballistic.
“My first reaction was complete shock and truly panic, because I’m not a fighter,” he said.
Ripp told The Post the political rhetoric and left-wing protest movement that has “demonized Israel under the guise of free speech” has “triggered a number of the actions we’ve seen . . . physical thuggery, insults, slurs, spits.”
Added his daughter, Emily, 36: “I’ve lived in New York my whole life, I’ve never seen anything life this.. It’s a projection from what’s going on overseas. . . . Now it’s coming from your neighbors and co-workers.”
Sheharyar Ali Kazmi, 25. Sheharyar Ali Kazmi
Experts agreed.
“When the world sneezes, New York catches the spray,” said David Sarni, a retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor,
The scourge of hateful incidents included:
- On Aug. 10, a maniac shouted, “Free Palestine!” before viciously stabbing a Jewish man in the stomach. The accused attacker, Vincent Sumpter, 22, of Brooklyn was reportedly “looking for trouble” when he approached Yechiel Dabrowskin around 2 a.m. near the Chabad Headquarters in Crown Heights, yelling antisemitic slurs and asking, “Do you want to die?” before lashing out with his blade. Dabrowskin told told Israel’s Kan 11 News, “I had internal bleeding, but thank God I had a miracle.” Sumpter is being held on $100,000 cash bail on multiple hate-crime charges.
three spray-painted swastikas were found in Woodhaven Aug. 14.
“Hate will not be tolerated here,” fumed Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who believes the troubling trend “is directly related to the conflict in the Middle East, and the radical groups that have tacked themselves to the tragedy. Too many people are trying to use the suffering of people in Israel and Palestine to justify their own bad behavior half-a-world away.”
The NYPD said: “All hate crimes are serious incidents and are treated as such by the Police Department. Crimes that are motivated by hate are vigorously investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force.”
Ripp meanwhile, is turning the other cheek — and refusing to give up on Gotham.
“There’s still too much basic humanity and there are plenty of good New Yorkers,” he said.
