A student at Nassau Community College has been arrested after vandalizing the campus with over 100 swastikas from mid-October to early December, police on Long Island say.
Jasskirat Saini, a 20-year-old Plainview resident, was arrested last night and charged with 10 counts of felony harassment stemming from an alleged vandalism spree that began in October. According to CBS, the first instance of the graffiti was found on October 15th, when three swastikas drawn with markers were found in a men's room on NCC's campus. On October 28th, two swastikas and "an anti-Semitic comment" were found drawn in a different men's bathroom, followed by the discovery of "multiple swastikas" in a men's bathroom on a later day, and finally a fourth incident in which three swastikas about 8 inches long were found drawn on a stair handrail in a building on campus on December 8th.
The Daily News pegged the number of swastikas allegedly drawn on campus by Saini at 110 before he was finally caught. The swastika-drawing machine allegedly supplemented his hate symbols with phrases like "Heil Hitler," "KKK" and "Germany."
Saini "believed he was being harassed by members of the Jewish community” in his neighborhood," Nassau County's acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter said at a news conference announcing the arrest, according to Newsday.
The arrest comes at a time when swastikas have been seen more and more and New York City, and when reports of bias crimes have topped their numbers from 2013, 2014 and 2015.
