In Shocking Move, Videographer Who Filmed Vandalism of Brooklyn Museum Leaders’ Homes Charged With Hate Crime
Police arrested a New York City unbiased journalist this afternoon, August 6, for reportedly filming the vandalism of a number of Brooklyn Museum leaders’ houses in mid-June, the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to Hyperallergic.
Samuel Seligson, a 32-year-old videographer who claims to have printed work in Reuters, ABC, and the New York Post, in accordance with his social media, was taken into custody in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and faces two counts of felony hate crime and felony mischief fees.
He is the second particular person to be arrested in reference to the incident, which concerned the portray of anti-Zionist graffiti on the residences of 4 Brooklyn Museum leaders together with Director Anne Pasternak. Last week, authorities arrested 28-year-old illustrator Taylor Pelton, who allegedly participated within the vandalism, on comparable fees.
Photos of the motion confirmed crimson paint splattered on Pasternak’s entrance porch, the place a white banner show with crimson handprints learn “Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White-Supremacist Zionist.” Her home windows had been additionally tagged with upside-down red triangles.
According to the Associated Press (AP), Seligson didn’t take part himself however is accused of touring in a automotive with the activists and getting into personal property with them. Police are nonetheless investigating the incident, NYPD instructed Hyperallergic.
Seligson’s lawyer Leena Widdi instructed AP that NYPD officers raided her shopper’s Brooklyn condominium on two events previously week earlier than he turned himself in right this moment. She known as the arrest and fees “appalling.”
Hyperallergic has contacted Seligson, Widdi, and the Brooklyn Museum for remark.
Seligson’s arrest could also be among the many first of its variety within the United States, in accordance with the US Press Freedom Tracker, which has not recorded another incidents of journalists being charged with hate crimes.
“It’s really important for authorities in the broader public to understand and differentiate the difference between protesters and journalists,” Katherine Jacobsen, who leads the Committee to Protect Journalists’s US program, instructed Hyperallergic.
Jacobsen additional described Seligson’s arrest as “a way to discourage reporters from going out and covering protest movements” and a “very direct form of censorship” that follows each a home and worldwide development.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation additionally characterised Seligson’s arrest as “alarming” and an try to “criminalize journalism” in a quick assertion on X.
The vandalism incident concentrating on Pasternak and different museum leaders adopted a closely policed pro-Palestine protest on the Brooklyn Museum on May 31 throughout which officers arrested dozens of demonstrators. The establishment stated it didn’t name the police.
Anonymous activists concerned within the June 12 vandalism stated the graffiti motion was a response to the museum’s sources of funding, alleged ties to Israeli navy pursuits, and police presence on the May 31 protest. However, public officers together with NYC Mayor Eric Adams and President Joe Biden denounced the motion as “antisemitic,” drawing criticism from activists who known as for a distinction to be made between antisemitic and anti-Zionist gestures.
