No charges for NJ cop’s daughter who posted Hitler selfies

The behavior of New Jersey teens who posted selfies dressed as Hitler on social media, and anti-Semitic tweets, was ruled “offensive” but not criminal by the Ocean County prosecutor’s office this week.

The main offender, the daughter of a New Jersey state sergeant, posted a photo of a crowded eatery frequented by Orthodox Jews with the caption, “Perfect bombing time” on her Twitter account, which has since been removed.

“There was never any danger being posed to the community,” Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, told local paper Asbury Park Press, app.com. “It didn’t rise to anything criminal.

“Everything was evaluated at face value. We have been assured by the families and the school that this is something that will be handled,” said Della Fave, who denied the girl’s connection to the police force was a determining factor.

The prosecutor’s office decided the teen’s posts would not be viewed as credible threats should the case be brought to court, and would have faced a credible First Amendment, freedom-of-speech defense, according to Rutgers Professor Bernard Bell.

“Would real terrorists speak out this way online? It’s almost a caricature of anti-Semitism,” Bell, who specializes in First Amendment issues, told app.com.

The teens’ troubling tweets were reposted by @MaleiRikud, a Twitter handle who describes itself as an “American Jew. Pragmatic idealist. Critical thinker. Satire enthusiast. Racism fighter. Grandchild of Holocaust survivors.” @MaleiRikud frequently retweets anti-Semitic postings to “help spread awareness of such bias.”

In one of the tweets, which at publication time was still found on @MaleiRikud’s account, the teen is seen wearing what appears to be a police dress-uniform hat, and is standing in a Nazi salute with the caption “1944: crematorium crew.”

Other tweets show the teen in Nazi uniform and Hitler mustache with a cuddly stuffed doll adorned with a swastika and the caption “Hail Hitler.” A friend tweeted back, “Just glad I’m not Anne Frank.”

The local Orthodox community is “routinely subjected to harassment,” according to app.com. The report said the area in New Jersey, Jackson, borders Lakewood, where the Orthodox population is projected to grow from 92,000 in the 2010 US Census to 220,000 by 2030.

The app.com article quoted New Jersey director of Agudath Israel Avi Schnall, who supported the prosecutor’s decision not to file charges.

“When Hitler becomes another costume that teenagers dress up in, and bombing a group of Jews becomes humorous, that tells us something is very wrong with our society,” said Schnall.

Most members of the local community declined to speak on the record with app.com, but Lakewood businessman and son of Holocaust survivors Hershel Herskowitz said, “There is a difference between freedom of speech and posting a picture of children and talking about bombs.

“This is not acceptable. This is not funny,” Herskowitz added.