Suspects arrested for painting swastikas on Brooklyn playground two days in a row

Playground equipment and walls were vandalized with swastikas at Gravesend Park in Brooklyn twice this week. Courtesy of Community Board 12

By Hannah Feuer January 22, 2026

Two 15-year-old boys were arrested after a Brooklyn playground frequented by Orthodox Jewish families was graffitied with swastikas two days in a row.

On Tuesday, 16 swastikas covered the walkways and play equipment at Gravesend Park, which is in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The next day, vandals covered the same playground with 57 swastikas and the words “Adolf Hitler,” according to police.

The two suspects were arrested Wednesday morning, according to the Boro Park Shomrim, the neighborhood’s volunteer security force. One of the teens has been charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief as a hate crime, while the other was charged with aggravated harassment, according to police.

Borough Park is home to 46,000 Jewish adults and 50,000 Jewish children, and 45% of households in Borough Park include a Jewish person, according to UJA-Federation of New York.

There are no security cameras at Gravesend Park, despite repeated requests to the city’s Parks Department for cameras to help combat drug use in the park, according to Barry Spitzer, district manager of Community Board District 12, which includes Borough Park.

Spitzer said he’s now received assurances that the Parks Department would send staff to lock the park at night until at least the end of the month, and he is hopeful that cameras will be installed soon.

For Spitzer, the vandalism hit close to home: His adult children used to play at Gravesend Park, and now his grandchildren do. All four of Spitzer’s grandparents are Holocaust survivors.

“Some people don’t realize the hurt that it causes, symbols like this. I mean, all of us here are descendants of Holocaust survivors,” Spitzer told the Forward. “If this is normal, then God forbid, much worse things become normal.”

The vandalism echoes an incident in November, when the Magen David Yeshiva in Gravesend, as well as a cemetery and Jewish social services organization, were spray painted with swastikas overnight. Police released surveillance footage of the suspect, who concealed his face, but no arrests have been made.

Julie Menin, New York’s first Jewish speaker of the City Council, toured Gravesend Park Thursday morning with members of Boro Park Shomrim as kids played nearby. The graffiti had all been cleaned off or painted over, but remnants of red paint still remained in patches of snow.

“Children are playing here. They come to play here, and they see not one swastika, not two swastikas, but 57 swastikas, day after day. When is enough enough?” Menin said during a  press conference at the park after the tour. “It is completely unacceptable.”

She added that the incident increased urgency to pass her recently introduced five-point plan to combat antisemitism, noting that part of her proposal included increased funding for security cameras.

The graffiti drew widespread condemnation from other New York leaders as well.

“A depraved act of antisemitism. In a children’s playground where our kids should feel safe and have fun. There is no excuse,” Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote on X. “There is zero tolerance. I’ve directed the New York State Hate Crimes Task Force to offer assistance to the NYPD in identifying those responsible.”

Antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of reported hate crimes in 2025, according to the NYPD, while Jewish New Yorkers make up 10% of the city’s residents.

“I am sickened by this antisemitic vandalism in Borough Park,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted to X. “Antisemitism has no place in our city, and I stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish New Yorkers who were targeted. My administration is working closely with the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force as well as our Parks Department, and those responsible will be investigated and held accountable.”

Mamdani’s anti-Zionist stance unsettled many Jewish New Yorkers during the campaign. His first few weeks in office have drawn concern as well after he revoked executive orders, on his first day, issued by former Mayor Eric Adams prohibiting city employees from boycotting Israel and implementing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which classifies most anti-Zionism as antisemitic. He also issued a delayed condemnation of chants of “we support Hamas here” outside a Queens synagogue event promoting real estate development in Israel.

Jacob Kornbluh contributed reporting.