City Sees Spike in Swastika Attacks

Several more hate crimes in the past 48 hours have contributed to an unusual spike in bias incidents in recent weeks as swastikas were found outside a Queens synagogue today, and yesterday at a lower Manhattan high school.

In the latest incident, at 6:45 a.m. this morning, swastikas were found scrawled on a volunteer Hatzolah ambulance and a bulletin board outside of a synagogue in Hillcrest, Queens.

"It's horrible thing to come in to work and see," a shaken woman who answered the phone at the Young Israel of Hillcrest synagogue, and who declined to give her name, said.

Swastikas were also found chalked in a high school next door to police headquarters yesterday. The new attacks came as police were investigating what may have been a race-fueled attack against a young black man in Staten Island this week.

The police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said the swastikas were the work of copycats following an incident a few weeks ago in which 23 anti-Semitic markings were found scattered through Brooklyn Heights.

Several nooses — a symbol linked to the lynching of black people in the South — have also been found hanging around the city recently in three separate incidents, including on the doorknob of a Columbia University Teachers College professor.

"The copycat syndrome is in full bloom," Mr. Kelly said at a midmorning news conference.

Mr. Kelly said police were investigating the anti-Semitic chalk markings at Murray Bergtraum High School, a business magnet school located in the shadow of 1 Police Plaza, but had no leads yet. A school librarian discovered the markings, including swastikas from 2 inches to 3 feet tall and a phrase lauding Adolf Hitler in the basement, first, and second floors, police said.

Police are also questioning four men involved in the beating of a 20-year-old black man in Staten Island reminiscent of a race-infused attack in Howard Beach in 2005, in which a white man beat a black man with a baseball bat.

In the most recent incident, the victim had run a footrace with a white male friend just before the attack, police said. After the race, he rested briefly against the hood of a silver Cadillac that was parallel-parked on Gigi Street, sliding off to lean against the driver's side mirror, police said. The two men, along with three other friends, all white, then walked away.

Less than 10 minutes later, a group of five white men piled into the Cadillac and followed the victim to a spot a few blocks away. They stopped him and a member of the group brandished a baseball bat.

The driver of the Cadillac, a "muscle-bound" man who police said may also be the owner of the vehicle, then made a racist comment and punched the victim in the jaw, police said.

Police said they spoke to an independent witness who watched the attack.

Police said the victim had been in the hospital as of early this morning, and was stable. The Hate Crime Taskforce is investigating the incident as a possible bias crime. No arrests have been made.

The Reverend Al Sharpton said today that he would accompany the victim as he leaves the hospital this afternoon.