He was trying to create a little West Bank on Long Island, prosecutors say.
A former Brooklyn car service driver is accused of writing threatening, anti-Jewish notes on torn up vouchers and dropping them around Long Island — and, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s office, Demetrios Apolonides’ motive for allegedly dropping “Kill the Jews” notes was to create strife between Muslims and Jews.
Apolonides, a married father of one living in Brooklyn, believed that Muslims would be blamed and tensions would escalate, a prosecutor said. It was unclear why exactly he may have wanted to create such a hostile atmosphere.
Apolonides has pleaded not guilty through his attorney but will be back in court this afternoon. He is charged with dropping the notes at least nine times in Nassau county between Sept. 2009 and March 2010.
Longtime Rockville Centre resident Gerald Aronowitz, 67, found one of the notes on his front lawn.
“It disturbed us,” he said.
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(Source: NBC New York)
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One Response
Was the defendant targeting particular individuals? If not, I am not sure why the prosecutor’s office is pursuing this. The defendant wrote essentially harmless notes spewing hateful speech. With all due respect to Mr. Aronowitz, I think there should be a much higher thresh-hold for prosecuting speech than “It disturbed us.”
Perhaps the defendant’s intentions to create a rift between Jews and Muslims is a basis for prosecuting this speech, but his intentions shouldn’t matter here. The likelihood of his actions producing violent confrontation are negligible, and certainly the notes do not present the kind of clear and present danger to others that could justify infringing his speech.