New York photojournalist accused of hate crime after documenting anti-Israel protest
A New York City journalist has been arrested on charges that he accompanied a group of pro-Palestinian protesters as they hurled red paint at the homes of top leaders at the Brooklyn Museum earlier this summer.
Samuel Seligson, an independent videographer, faces felony hate crime charges.
According to a criminal complaint written by a police detective, Seligson, 31, traveled with the group of vandals as they defaced the facades of two apartments belonging to the museum’s director and president. The activists are accused of spray-painting doors and sidewalks with messages that accused the two leaders of supporting genocide. A banner hung at the home of the museum’s Jewish president called her a “white-supremacist Zionist.”
Seligson’s attorney, Leena Widdi, says her client was acting in his capacity as a credentialed member of the media, describing the hate crime charges as an “appalling” overreach by police and prosecutors. She says police twice raided his Brooklyn home before he turned himself in early Tuesday.
While the complaint describes Seligson as a participant in the crime, a law enforcement official speaking anonymously says he was not directly involved in the spray-painting or property damage.
Anarchists posing as press
surrenders in antisemitic vandalism spree targeting Brooklyn Museum’s Jewish board members .Samuel Seligson, 32, of Brooklyn surrendered at the 7th Precinct stationhouse on the Lower East Side at around 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, less than a week after… pic.twitter.com/CspWVcx0zZ
— Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) August 6, 2024
The arrest has drawn condemnations from press freedom groups, while raising questions about the rights of a journalist to document illegal activity. Seligson, who is Jewish, is a fixture at New York City protests and has licensed and sold footage to mainstream outlets, including Reuters and ABC News.
“Samuel is being charged for alleged behavior that is protected by the First amendment and consistent with his job as a credentialed member of the press,” Widdi says in an email. “What is even more concerning, however, is that this member of the press is being charged with a hate crime.”
Seligson has been arraigned in Brooklyn on eight counts of criminal mischief, four of which are classified as a hate crime, and has been granted supervised release.
The June vandalism targeted four homes belonging to members of the Brooklyn Museum’s board, generating allegations of antisemitism and condemnations from across the political spectrum.
The activists wore face masks and dark clothing as they spray-painted slogans on the board members’ homes, according to court papers. They also hung banners featuring an inverted red triangle, a symbol used as propaganda by the Hamas terror group to celebrate attacks on Israelis.
