Hassard
WHITE PLAINS – An 18-year-old SUNY Purchase College student has
been arrested for felony aggravated harassment for hanging posts with
Nazi symbolism on the campus.
On Sunday evening, December 8, during the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah,
the felony complaint alleges that Gunnar Hassard of Oneonta hung several
posters with a swastika and symbols of Nazi Germany on and near the Humanities
Building.
The complaint states Hassard posted the flyers on the campus “frequented
and utilized by members of the Jewish community… causing alarm,
fear and annoyance to the members of the campus community during the Jewish
holiday of Hanukkah.”
State University Police arrested Hassard and charged him with aggravated
harassment, a hate crime, which specifically states a person is guilty
of this crime when one “Etches, paints, draws upon or otherwise
places a swastika, commonly exhibited as the emblem of Nazi Germany, or
any building or other real property…”
Bail was set at $5,000 cash or bond.
