Hassard
WHITE PLAINS – A 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, 18. 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, on
any building or other real property…”
Bail was set at $5,000 cash or bond.
“This anti-Semitic act and any other acts of prejudice or hate will
not be tolerated within our county,” the Westchester County Human
Rights Commission said in a prepared statement.
University Police officers are members of the PBA of New York State.
A statement from the union thanked the officers at SUNY Purchase “for
their swift response, and for arresting the individual involved in the
callous, haeful acts thta occurred on campus Sunday.”
