(NEW YORK) — One person has been arrested and two others are being sought for burning American and Israeli flags outside the Israeli consulate in New York City, authorities said.
Jahki Lodgson-McCray, 20, was charged with reckless endangerment, menacing, disorderly conduct and failure to use a sidewalk, authorities said.
On Wednesday, three people used an accelerant to burn flags in an active bike lane outside the Consulate General of Israel in midtown Manhattan, according to the NYPD.
“The flames of the flags presented a danger to bikers having to swerve out of the bike lane onto ongoing traffic and also presented a danger to civilians on the sidewalk,” police said.
The New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force is looking for the two outstanding suspects.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry called them “cowards” on social media.
“The NYPD will identify and apprehend all of them for their failed efforts to sow fear and discord in the place where mutual respect is the essence of who we are,” Daughtry wrote.
The flag burning comes on the heels of vandalism incidents in New York City this week, including at the homes of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum and several of the museum’s board members, officials said.
And on Monday, a masked man led a call-and-response chant by protesters on a crowded Manhattan subway car. The chant asked Zionists to identify themselves.
“Repeat after me: Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist,” the leader, wearing sunglasses and a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of pro-Palestinian resistance, is heard repeatedly saying in the video, adding, “This is your chance to get out!”
“Ok, no Zionists, we’re good,” the leader is then heard saying.
The NYPD is working to identify the masked leader.
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