Last week, a July beating where the attacker allegedly told his victim, "We don't like faggots on Barker Street," was deemed a hate crime by the Staten Island DA's office. Chief ADA Dan Master said the victim "was targeted because of his perceived sexual orientation," and charged 24-year-old James Champagne with third-degree assault as a hate crime, a felony, and second-degree aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor. This week, the NAACP entered the fray (Champagne is black);......

A 24-year-old man was charged with three counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime. Police says Joseph Papapietro, 24, allegedly drove into three Mexican owned businesses on Port Richmond Avenue on Staten Island last week. Police arrested him after noticing the broken tail light on his red pickup truck (witnesses said the driver was in a red pickup) and the Advance reports that Papapietro "made incriminating statements" during questioning. Cocaine residue was also found......

Last week Brad Walsh (nightlife photographer, musician, Christian Siriano's boyfriend) recounted an experience he recently had on Spring and 6th, involving a hostile Yuengling truck driver.A delivery truck driven by a guy on a cell phone was turning and almost hit me and another guy. Me and the other guy put our hands up like "what are you doing," but we didn't say or mouth anything to the driver. The driver (jacked) got out, followed......

Gay Pride Week is coming to a close with today's Gay Pride March along Fifth Avenue and a number of other events. But while you celebrate, please remain vigilant also, because a reader tells us he was attacked on the 2/3 from Christopher Street late yesterday afternoon, after volunteering at a pride event: "The guy kept asking us to move because he didn't like us and that we made him sick. There was no place......

Yesterday morning a painted swastika was found at 800 Bedford Avenue (between Park and Flushing) in Williamsburg, it was one of five that were discovered on that block, and one of many discovered in recent weeks. The Yeshiva World notes that the last known incident involving swastikas in Williamsburg occurred just this past week, an hour prior to a similar incident in Crown Heights. Independent of that, we received notice of two other swastikas found......

Two white Staten Island cops were indicted today for an incident last Halloween in which they allegedly handcuffed a black egg-throwing teen and drove him to a dark, secluded marshland he was stranded (the handcuffs were taken off). Initially, the cops were also accused of stripping him down to his shorts and kicking him. The officers, Thomas Elliassen and Richard Danese, who are pleading not guilty, said they just wanted to "scare him" and later......

The serial flusher responsible for two Koran toilet dunkings at Pace University has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 300 hours of community service. Stanislav Shmulevich, a Russian immigrant, was a business major at the time of the incidents, in which a copy of the Koran was twice discovered in the toilet – the first time "covered in feces" – in October and November 2006. Shmulevich remained at large until last summer, when police connected......

The Columbia Teachers College professor who was in the news last year when a noose was found on her office door angrily denied she plagiarized others' work. Madonna Constantine, who the Teachers College sanctioned after a year-and-a-half investigation, will appeal the charges. Constantine, who remains a tenured professor, issued a statement, calling the memo (released to TC faculty) discussing sanctions "premature, vindictive, and mean-spirited," lacking "sensitivity and due process." She wondered "whether a White faculty......

After a year-plus long investigation, Columbia Teachers College has sanctioned a professor for plagiarism. And the professor happens to be Madonna Constantine, the professor who found a noose on her office door last fall. The Columbia Spectator got confirmation that the Teachers' College “found numerous instances in which she [Constantine] used others’ work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years: "Prompted by complaints from students and one former......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

When you're found to be making pipe bombs amidst an apartment arsenal of weapons and then confess to painting swastikas in your Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, expect the book to be thrown at you repeatedly. Ivaylo Ivanov was charged with over 100 criminal counts for his activities. Found in the Remsen Street apartment he shared with AIDS researcher Dr. Michael Clatts (they had their own living spaces in the duplex) were a "sniper rifle, machine gun,......

Sure, getting dumped hurts, but does that mean you need to deface an entire neighborhood? A Brooklyn man was arrested after police discovered he was behind a number of swastikas found in Brooklyn, apparently acting out after being left for another (possibly more stable) man. According to police, 911 received a number of calls from a pay phone about swastikas on buildings and cars in Sheepshead Bay; the culprit was described as a bald man.......

The story of Ivaylo Ivanov just gets more and more strange. First, he calls the cops saying that he was shot in the hand only to admit that he shot himself. Next, the police investigate the situation only to find a cache of assorted weapons and pipe bombs at Ivanov's residence. Now the 31-year-old ex-con admits to defacing Brooklyn Heights with swastikas last year. Ivanov, who his lawyer says is Jewish, claims that the pipe......

A week and a half ago, hundreds of headstones at the Poile Zedek Cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ were toppled over, raising concerns that the Jewish cemetery had been targeted in a possible hate crime. Yesterday, when four teens, a 15-year-old, two 16-year-olds, and a 17-year-old, were arrested, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said that the investigation so far did not suggest this "was an attempt to intimidate, target or harm the Jewish community." The......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 20th Ave. and 37th St. in Queens, a hate crime on East 9th St. and Ave. H in Brooklyn, and a missing child on Decatur Ave. in the Bronx. Hyperactive performer Robin Williams is David Letterman's guest tonight, in his first new show in weeks. Letterman, as well as Craig Ferguson, have worked out pacts with the Writers Guild of America, allowing writers to come......

Hassan Askari, the Muslim college student who intervened in a violent subway attack against a group of Jewish riders, was honored at City Hall yesterday. The fight allegedly started when some thugs boarded a Q train yelling "Merry Christmas", prompting one of the Jewish riders to respond with a "Happy Hanukkah." Fisticuffs ensued, with one of the non-Jewish attackers shouting, "Happy Hanukkah, that's when the Jews killed Jesus!" One of the goons is also said......

One of the ten suspects arrested in the Q train beating of a Jewish man during Hanukkah is saying that hate crime charges are completely uncalled for because he himself is Jewish. Joseph Jirovec Jr. was arrested two weeks ago after a group of Hanukkah revelers was beaten while on a the Q train after wishing happy holidays to other riders. Members of a crowd on the train took objection to the Jewish greetings and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck on Wythe and Metropolitan Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned police car on Gun Hill Rd. in the Bronx, and a bank robbery on Austin Rd. in Queens. Joseph Jirovec, one of the teenagers accused of the Hannukah Q train hate crime, says that he and his friends were the victims. He said the fight began only after a racial slur was directed at one of......

Joseph Jirovec and Kimberly Babajko are two of ten people arrested in an attack that was initiated by a friendly greeting of "Happy Channukah!" aboard a Q train in Brooklyn last week. Both Jirovec and Babajko have criminal records for assaulting minorities and could face hate crime charges in their latest brush with justice. Both are scheduled to appear in Brooklyn Criminal Court today for the vicious beating they allegedly administered to Walter Adler, who......

The story around the possible hate crime attack on a Q train the other night seems to be made for the season. Not only does it come while subway violence is a big topic, it also involves a group of Jewish subway riders being called "dirty Jews" and "Jew bitches" and attacked by people who cried, "Happy Hanukkah, that's when the Jews killed Jesus." And here's the kicker: The only person who stepped in......

Police are investigating an attack on a Brooklyn-bound Q train as a possible hate crime. A group of people (WNBC says they were on their way home from Hanukkah celebrations) were called anti-Semitic phrases and then beaten up by another group of ten people at Canal Street. The Post has some more details: Apparently one of the attackers "made anti-Semitic remarks about Jews killing Jesus, saying, 'This is a Christian country.'" But the father of......

Today is a citywide "Day Out Against Hate." City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Reverend Al Sharpton have spearheaded the event, which was prompted by a number of disturbing hate crime incidents, from swastikas in Brooklyn Heights to a noose found at the Columbia University campus. The Politicker was at one of the events this morning, where Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz "suggested, rather strongly, that city public school students be required to make......

The Queens DA's office is allegedly split over how to handle a Halloween night fight in Howard Beach. A fight erupted on the Cross Bay Boulevard between a group of white youths and a group of black and Hispanic youths. The white youths, after feeling intimidated by a black or Hispanic youth, threw eggs at him, and then a melee broke out when 30-40 others, some with sticks, fought the white youths. Five black and......

Howard Beach residents are probably shaking their heads over reports of yet another allegedly racially motivated attack in their neighborhood. The police say that a group of white teenagers claims they were attacked by a group, who were made up of Hispanics and blacks. At Cross Bay Boulevard, a the group of white teens noticed the group of black and Hispanic teens; according to the Post, "The apparent leader of the black group walked up......

A spray-painted swastika was found on the door of a Columbia University Teacher's College professor yesterday morning. Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is Jewish and researches the Holocaust, said she had been "more public" about her work on the Holucaust, "I think there's a very hate-filled person who is an extreme coward. It makes my blood run cold." Midlarsky had received an anti-Semitic flier in her school mailbox on October 17. On October 24, she received......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at White Plains Rd. and 219th St. in the Bronx, an animal incident on Rochelle Pl. on Staten Island, and a hate crime at Columbia University in Manhattan. A tour of Jam Master Jay's studio, where the rap impressario was gunned down five years ago. A brief update on the unforgettable case where a man beat the bejeezus out of a grunting and yelping spin class......

Principal Tyona Washington of Canarsie High School opened up a piece of mail that contained a noose made out of string as well as a 2-page letter containing, per Newsday, "a common racial slur and words suggesting that a black person should not be running the school." The letter also referred to "white power" and had the signature of a white administrator, but police do not believe the letter was from that individual. Additionally, the......

The Reverend Al Sharpton, speaking out against the beating a black man in Staten Island, announced that he will organize a protest march in the next few weeks. He said, "New York is becoming worse than Louisiana. We're going to Staten Island, Jena, Washington - and we're going to bring out numbers like you've never seen before." On Tuesday, Skylar McCormack, who is black and had been with some white friends, was attacked by......

The Staten Island District Attorney's office has dropped hate crime charges against two young white men accused of beating a black man in Mariners Harbor. SI DA Daniel Donovan said, "At this point I believe the evidence provided to my office by the police is legally insufficient to support hate-crime charges." Skylar McCormick was allegedly punched, kicked, beaten and threatened with a baseball bat Tuesday night after he touched Daniel Avissato's Cadillac. Avissato and Mark......

The police arrested two white men in the the beating of a black man in Staten Island. The Reverend Al Sharpton appeared with the victim and said, "We cannot live in a city, state or nation where people cannot safely be in the streets or anywhere else because of the color of their skin." In Mariners Harbor on Tuesday night, 20-year-old Skylar McCormick and four friends - who are white - were having a foot......