New York: Democratic activist James Polite arrested for vandalizing a synagogue, writing ‘Hitler’ ‘Jews better be ready’ ‘Die Jew rats’

The New York City Police Department arrested a Democratic activist on Friday night for allegedly vandalizing a synagogue in New York City with anti-Semitic messages just days after eleven people were murdered at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

The messages on the Brooklyn’s Union Temple said “Hitler,” “Jews better be ready” and “Die Jew rats, we are here!”

Police said there were also drawings of the Puerto Rican flag, and the words “Free PR” were written in black marker on walls.

James Polite, 26, was arrested and then committed to the psychiatric ward at the Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. According to a spokesperson, the arresting officers likely brought Polite to the psychiatric ward because of his behavior during the arrest.

Just this last week on Facebook, Polite wrote a post that stated: “A dream with eyes wide open. civil war is here. Nobody gotta die. Mexico, latin America, carribean vs. Jew n***er pigs. One person touch me this whole s**t a smoking.”

Polite also “posted a cell-phone picture of a burning American flag, with the caption ‘Sometimes things take a lil heat to grow.”

James Polite

Polite was a former volunteer on Obama’s first presidential campaign, was profiled in a New York Times article last December. The article details his struggles in foster care, working on that 2008 campaign and landing an intern job with Democrat Christine C. Quinn, then the City Council speaker, at a gay pride event.

Quinn said that she knew James Polite well. She wrote, “I know this young man, and along with many others in the New York City Council and social services agencies throughout the city have done everything I could over the years to help him as he grew up in and out of the foster care system, in and out of the mental health system, and in and out of homelessness…And while he has experienced hardship that many people can’t ever imagine, his actions are inexcusable.”

Police sources told the Daily News that they suspect Polite of setting a series of small trash fires in and around synagogues in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Williamsburg has a large orthodox Jewish community.

A report this week from The New York Times revealed that “contrary to what are surely the prevailing assumptions, anti-Semitic incidents have constituted half of all hate crimes in New York this year. To put that figure in context, there have been four times as many crimes motivated by bias against Jews — 142 in all — as there have against blacks.