Police in New York have arrested a 12-year-old boy after anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled across an elementary school playground.
The chalk graffiti, which included dozens of swastikas and anti-Semitic messages including "Hail Hitler" (sic) and "No Jews Allowed," were found at the school in the Queens area of the city on February 22.
The arrest of the boy, who has not been identified, was confirmed by NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot F. Shea.
"On Fri, 2-22-19, anti-Semitic graffiti was found throughout a Queens playground," Shea tweeted. "The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force now have the suspect—a 12-year-old male—in custody. Great job NYPD Hate Crimes.
"No matter the face of hate, the NYPD, partnered with the community, has ZERO tolerance."
The child has been processed as a juvenile and released to his family, Shea added.
Following the appearance of the graffiti, councilman Chaim Deutsch urged New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to take action on the rise of hate crimes against Jewish people in the city.
"Yet another act of anti-semitism in our city brings the total of anti-semitic hate crimes in our city to nearly 50 since the start of the new year," Deutsch said in a statement reported by WABC.
"This has gotten completely out of hand. I urge Mayor de Blasio to immediately implement mine and Councilmember Mark Levine's bills that recently passed in the City Council, which would require educational outreach to teach about the impact of hate, bias, and anti-Semitism."
De Blasio addressed the rise in hate crime attacks in New York during a radio interview on WNYC's "Brian Lehrer Show."
"There's no question there is a huge uptick in real hate crime of all types," De Blasio said.
"In this city we've seen it in a horrible manner particularly, lately, anti-Semitic hate crimes. We had a huge spate of anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim—we've seen something horrible in the last two years unquestionably connected to the kind of atmosphere that Donald Trump has fostered around this country.
"The numbers prove it. And these hate crimes are real," he added. "So, I'm not going to speak to something that's still in many ways very murky. I want to speak to the reality that we know is factual."
Earlier this month, the NYPD said it had investigated 42 hate crimes from the start of the year to February 4, compared with 19 during the same period last year.
Shea said that a majority of these incidents were anti-Semitic, reports The Associated Press.
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