Desecration in New Brunswick

A Jewish cemetery in Middlesex County, NJ was destroyed in two separate incidents, Jan 1 and this past Saturday night. Officials said 499 gravestones were knocked over, making this one of the most devastating hate crimes ever to occur in this community. Gravestones, some of which date to the 1920s, were cracked or broken, toppled like dominos.

The New York Times describes Celia Tracy, an eighty-year old resident with family members buried in the Jewish cemetery, rummaging through the destruction in search a particular stone.

“We are just so confused,” said Mrs. Tracy, 80, tears welling in her eyes. “We aren’t sure if it is in this row or that row.” She and her husband, Murray Tracy, came to the Poile Zedek Cemetery on Tuesday after learning that many of the headstones had been knocked over.

“The question is why,” she said. “Why did this happen? In this day and age, it just shouldn’t exist.”

With no suspects or motives, the authorities were initially reluctant to label the damage a hate crime. By Tuesday, however, the police and the mayor were categorizing the destruction as a “bias incident.”

WTF.

Update: Four teenagers have been arrested over vandalism incidents at a Jewish cemetery, authorities said Thursday, but the attacks do not appear to be bias crimes.

I say charge them for hate crimes anyway.