Beverly WakiagaThe man allegedly responsible for defacing the historic African Burial Ground has been arrested. According to NYPD Chief of Detectives, Dermot Shea, Ivan Nieves was apprehended earlier this morning by the NYPD in collaboration with the Hate Crimes Task Force, Homeland Security, and the National Park Police and Federal Protective Service.
According to The New York Post, the 57-year-old is being charged with vandalism and disorderly conduct.
A racial slur was found painted on the historic African Burial Ground Monument in New York on Nov. 1.
Kill’ followed by the N-word are the words said to have been painted on the monument. Located in lower Manhattan, the African Burial Ground is the oldest and largest burial ground in North America. The burial ground is said to host approximately 15,000 skeletons dating from 1630 to 1795.
According to NBC New York, The NYPD Hate Crime Taskforce is currently looking at surveillance to find those responsible for defacing the African Burial Ground Monument.
This is the latest hate crime to be brought to the public’s attention after 11 people were killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue, only a few days after two African Americans were killed in a grocery store in Kentucky.
According to the Associated Press, there have been reports of hate crimes across the country. Two weeks ago an Indiana woman was arrested for leaving a letter to her black neighbors telling them “THIS IS A WHITE NEIGHBORHOOD.” A man was arrested after threatening a black Republican volunteer with a gun and hurling slurs at him at an early voting location in North Carolina.
The Anti-Defamation League found that there has been an increase in white supremacist activities on college campuses since President Trump’s election. In October, students at DePauw University in Indiana reported four cases of hate speech.
Those found guilty of committing hate crimes could be prosecuted under federal hate crime laws and state hate crime laws but according to a recent report by The New York Times, there are currently no strict or extensive protocols for identifying and dealing with white supremacists as there are for dealing with Muslim extremists.
Updated 11/20/18 12:07PM
