photo courtesy of Boyd Lovings Facebook page
March 7,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, Ridgewood PD Patrol Officer Salvatore D’Amico assists Detectives Douglas Henky and Steven Shortway in the investigation of a Swastika found etched in a sidewalk at the intersection of Northern Parkway and Overbrook Road, Ridgewood on Monday morning, 03/06. Ridgewood PD had learned of the Swastika via posts on numerous Ridgewood based Facebook groups.
Ridgewood Village staff quickly jumped into action and “Erased the Hatred” from the sidewalk.
Photo courtesy of Village of Ridgewood Mayor Susan Knudsen
Thank you to the Ridgewood staff and to Mayor Knudsen for making this happen right away. Very relieved to have it gone. Such a shame that some residents diminished this as a harmless prank……..clearly those who did so are not in a position to feel fear from hatred and racism.
The investigation could start by answering these simple questions:
1. Was the “swastika” carved in dry concrete or wet concrete?
2. What date was the concrete poured?
We throw the phrase “hate crime” around an awful lot. There is an older phrase I like better. “Stupid Kids”
Stupid kids are different from kids who have hatred inbred into their hearts. A swastika is a symbol of hatred.
I think it was backwards, but that doesn’t make it OK.
Failure to scratch a properly oriented swastika when presented with a clear opportunity (i.e. unattended wet cement) to enshrine one’s supposedly deep-seated antisemitism within the local “streetscape” would seem to constitute a true anomaly. So much more likely is it that this was the idle act of a stupid, neglected kid with no more antisemitism in his bloodstream than the average goth or gamer that this latter circumstance is the ineluctable conclusion. Get over yourselves, 8:21 and 9:24. You are too easily inflamed into indignancy. If you weren’t commenting anonymously one might suspect you of naked virtue-signaling.
Totally agree. A stupid kid doing a stupid thing in wet cement that many people say they’ve seen there for years. Why havent anyone said this that they noticed it for years?
It didn’t take ‘considerable effort’ it took a stupid kid. Like years ago. Stop trying to bowl the whole situation up.
Swastika – Wikipedia
Wikipedia › wiki › Swastika
Called svastika in Sanskrit, it is an ancient symbol of auspiciousness in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
A change in prospective sometime helps ….