New York Ex-Cop Reveals Shocking Anti-Semitic Tapes
Image by Screenshot WABC
By John A. Oswald November 24, 2015
An ex-police officer assigned to the World Trade Center says he was barraged with anti-Semitic comments on a daily basis — and he has the tapes to prove it.
David Attali, an Israeli Jew, told WABC in New York City that the constant harassment took its toll.
“Every day when I would go to work, literally every step I would take closer to the building, I would just feel my mood changing,” he said. “Every day, to hear the same things, I felt like I was caged.”
The nastiness started soon after he arrived at the World Trade Center Command — and never stopped, .
In one recording Attali made, an officer is heard making a joke about the Holocaust.
Cop: “Do you want to go to this camp for the summer?”
Attali: “Why?”
Cop: “Oh, you will lose so much weight, you’ll be in the best shape of your life.
Attali: “How so?”
Cop: “It’s a concentration camp.”
In another recording, not one, not two, but three officers are heard to be making even more hateful comments.
Cop 1: “I hate that haircut.”
Attali: “Want me to shave my head?”
Cop 1: “I want to push you into an oven and (expletive) burn.”
Cop 2: “I want to tattoo a number on you.”
Cop 3: “DKS7741, step up, breathe in this tube,” another said. “And, oh wait, he died, surprise, surprise.”
Ads for pork were also posted on his locker, Attali alleged and, the WABC report says, Officer Christopher Delbrocolo often called him a “dirty Jew.”
The NYPD is investigating and three cops have been hit with disciplinary charges.
Attali quit last year and is suing the city and nine officers, including Delbrocolo.
He told The Daily News that he believes other cops resented that he was given off Saturdays to observe the Sabbath.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
