Brooklyn, NY – A former New York City police officer was arrested before dawn Sunday on charges he spray-painted anti-Semitic profanities on cars and buildings in a mostly Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood — including the front doors of a religious elementary school.
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Michael Setiawan was picked up after police received a 911 call on Saturday evening about the swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti in Borough Park.
The 36-year-old faces charges of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment as hate crimes.
Setiawan was a city officer until 2007, serving in Brooklyn’s 69th precinct in the Canarsie neighborhood, police said.
Below Video: Michael Setiawan being led from the The 66th Police Precinct in Borough Park section of Brooklyn. ( Shimon GIfter/VINnews.com)
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The words spray-painted in red were found on 15 vehicles and four buildings near the Bnos Zion synagogue and school run by the ultra-Orthodox Bobov community. A surveillance camera at the school captured a suspect; police blurred out the face in the video. They would not immediately say whether the man was Setiawan.
Setiawan and his parents share a home in Queens. His father told The Associated Press that he was awakened at 5 a.m. Sunday by a call from police. He then went to his son’s room and roused him. Minutes later, a detective showed up to arrest Setiawan, said his father, Thomas Setiawan.
“I asked my son, ‘What’s wrong? What happened? Is anybody hurt?”’ the Indonesian immigrant said in a telephone interview, his voice rising with emotion in heavily accented English. “He said ‘No, don’t worry, nobody’s hurt.”’
But people did get hurt, said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the area.
“This was not a victimless crime,” Hikind said. “We have many Holocaust survivors here, many elderly people and children who are appropriately frightened by unprovoked hate attacks upon their schools and community. … Hate attacks on our community will not go unpunished.”
Thomas Setiawan said his son asked him for the keys to the family car around 8 p.m. Saturday, saying he’d left something inside.
“Then we looked out, and the car was gone,” the elder Setiawan said, adding that he and his wife became worried.
He said their son has had mental health issues and that he was depressed and suicidal after leaving the police force. They didn’t know why he was no longer an officer, telling them only, “I want to quit.”
Before joining the force, Michael Setiawan had been laid off from a job at a Long Island cosmetics factory, Thomas Setiawan said.
On Sunday morning, after he was led away by police, his father said he and his wife were left with Michael Setiawan’s young son, who was visiting for the weekend. The former officer’s ex-wife later picked up the child to return to their home in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge, Thomas Setiawan said.
The retired limousine driver said Michael Setiawan was 12 when the family emigrated from Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1989 after winning the green card lottery.
Michael Setiawan was to be arraigned later Sunday or Monday. His father said he did not yet have an attorney.
wanna smack that smiling low life.
With a smile on his face. Seems like he does have mental issues. I always wonder why mental health professionals aren’t really wealthy. There are soooo many sickos out there. And the really scary part is , this guy has a license for a gun!
Seems like a mantel case rather then Antisemit.
he obviously was disturbed – no need to make it worse than it is dov! no one was threatened maybe he should be given a pressure washer hose and be made to clean up the mess yes we are in golus get the guy to psych-
send him back. and quit sending losers here
What this guy did is way worse than what Sterling said.
Actions speak louder than words. If Sterling was suspended for life this guy should be in jail for life.
How was he able to become one of NY’s finest if he is a mental case? They have to pass a rigerous entrance exam and mental health evaluation.
Something doesn’t add up.
Thanks to Shomrim, who led the NYPD to the perp.
.
More sad than anything else.
It is chilling that a person with weapons training and police experience would do something like this in NYC.
All this doesn’t explain his hatred towards jews.
I remember this officer responding to a car accident outside of a wedding hall.
He treated everyone with tremendous contempt. So much so, that i remember him and the incedent happened years ago…
!!!נערווען קראנקער
He said their son has had mental health issues and that he was depressed and suicidal after leaving the police force. They didn’t know why he was no longer an officer, telling them only, “I want to quit.”
Hahaha………! I knew this was coming….always a way out to reduce sentence….. but guess wat….he must be really disturbed if being a former police (NY’s finest) could still bring you to stoop so low and do such a tasteless act. And his sick smile just proves it.
I wonder what the NY gun control crowd has to say now? why is it ok to arm the police but not civilians ?
Wonder how many mentally ill driven graffiti crimes there are in his homeland of Indonesia where he’d get caned (malkus whipping where thru that punishment people are permanently crippled for life or even killed) for that.
Years ago, if an applicant for the NYPD had an unpaid parking ticket, it would go against him, on his internal investigation for the job. Now, ex-cons, and people with mental problems are hired, as cops. This psycho should never have been hired to begin with. Unfortunately, he is only the tip of the iceberg.
seems like a bit of overkill…
Ayin tachas ayin. An appropriate punishment would be for his whole torso to be tattooed with the message “I am a disgusting specimen”
A perfect fit for the NYPD another menthol case, beautiful
90% of Indonesians are Muslims.
So his mental illness excuses his anti-Jew behavior? How so? It’s not like he went around spraying targets at random. Obviously he harbors Jew-hatred in his heart and in his craziness he could not suppress it. He is like the drunk that loses control of his self discipline and spills his guts – his true feelings.
Bad combo: Muslim and mentally ill. Probably blames Jews for his life problems, like so many others.
Good work NYPD.