Paint Over Hate

The past 8 months or so, my neighborhood in Jackson Heights, Queens has been under attack by an antisemitic hate group that has been carpet-bombing the neighborhood with sinister antisemitic graffiti, homemade stickers, and posters.

This antisemitic hate group is carpet-bombing every single fixture of the urban landscape: every light pole, every crosswalk box, every post-office box, every bus stop, every 7 Train stanchion, everything. Every single thing.

This hate group has been targeting the synagogue in the neighborhood with overt death threats to Jewish congregants.

They have been targeting Jewish people’s homes with overt death threats.

They have been putting up graffiti explicitly encouraging Jews to commit suicide.

Another day I discovered a line of swastikas that continued for a number of city blocks.

They have been making graffiti throughout the neighborhood with not-at-all subtle messages encouraging people to commit violence against Jews – not in the Middle East but here in Queens.

They do this every single night. I’m not at all exaggerating. Every single night.

Their purpose is to humiliate, terrorize and torment Jews.

So every morning for 5 months now, I’ve been waking up before dawn to trace the steps of this hate group’s reign of terror and destroy it before anyone else wakes up to go to work, and most importantly before any kids go to school.

Step One is to destroy the graffiti by whatever means possible. Sometimes I can scrape or chisel it off. Sometimes I have to cover it with duct tape or a blob of spray paint. Sometimes a patch will have to do for now.

Step Two after the patch coat of paint is dry I come back the next day and give the whole fixture a brand new coat of paint in NYC DOT standard-issue green, yellow, red, black, and grey to restore it as back to factory settings as possible.

As of his date, I have re-painted no less than 50 light poles grey, 60 crosswalk boxes mustard yellow, 20 post office boxes forest green, 35 electrical boxes forest green, and 20 fire hydrants black or red.

But the number of messages of hate I have destroyed is far more than that – it has to be at least 900 so far. I’ve lost count. These neo-Nazis habitually target the same fixtures over and over again, so when all is said and done, after I'm done cleaning it up, certain fixtures of the urban streetscape are going to end up with comically-thick, cartoonish-colored new coats of paint.

Already you can notice a difference. When people see me destroying the antisemitic graffiti, 9 times out of 10 people shout out “FINALLY! SOMEONE has the nerve to do it!"

Random people I’ve never met before are coming up to me on the street as I do my work and thanking me for making the neighborhood less threatening.

A group of Filipina lades thanked me for chiseling off a display of antisemitic stickers that ringed the Catholic church.

People of all walks of life are thanking me for making the neighborhood a bit nicer to look at.

Usually people come up to me to give me tips where to find a new batch of noxious graffiti or the next deteriorated fixture in need of a glow up.

Like Tom Sawyer whitewashing his fence, I’ve even accumulated a number of admirers who want to pitch in and help.

I'm raising money for the Jackson Heights Beautification Group. In consultation with JHBG, we need to aim for $10,000 to do everything that this organization needs to do to give every fixture in the neighborhood defaced with antisemitic graffiti and give every fixture a new paint job.