Man With Swastika Necklace Rides Subway In NYC

A man donning a noticeable swastika necklace caused concern on the New York City subway this week. The unidentified man was spotted at least twice wearing the necklace recently. Subway riders shared photos of the man on Twitter and other social media sites.

“Check out the necklace,” said Craig Lenti, who took a photo of the man on a Queensboro Plaza subway platform Aug. 20. “A Nazi. Out AND proud in Queens today. Isn’t this just a wonderful world we live in?!?”

Clad in a black Nike tee shirt, black shorts and large white headphones, the man appeared unconcerned about photos being taken.

“These people are becoming emboldened in a way that is terrifying,” Lenti told Gothamist. “As a member of the LGBT community and as an active supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement… this disgusts me. I’m concerned for my safety on a daily basis. And today, in my hometown, I stood across from a man who celebrated a hate group that brutally murdered many like me.”

Other straphangers spotted the man as well.

“A man awaits the #NYC subway proudly displaying a swastika from his neck, in case you still think these #AltRight rallies have been harmless,” a user posted on Twitter August 20 next to a photo of the man.

Another woman said she saw the man on an E train August 27 after she got on at 42^nd Street in Manhattan.

“The Nazi swastika, displayed in this way, is a clear attempt at intimidation,” she told Gothamist, requesting anonymity. “It is a statement that the wearer does not believe that large groups of people deserve to be alive. This ideology terrifies me, all the more so if people are proudly and publicly endorsing it.”

Wearing a swastika, however, is not in and of itself a crime. Drawing or etching the images in public is—and the images have been spotted throughout New York and other places as of late. Videos and photos of riders working to help remove the images on the New York City transit system have circulated on social media.

“You are allowed to wear whatever type of necklace you would like in NYC,” a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told Gothamist. “A swastika drawn in a public place would be a crime so you can call 911 or your local precinct to report it.”

Other subway riders have reported Nazi imagery while riding the train.

“Stepped off the subway to see a dude with a swastika and Nazi eagle tattooed on his pec,” a rider wrote on Twitter in June.

Police said Friday they were searching for the people who had drawn swastikas and other hate messages on a church in the Upper West Side and a synagogue in the Lower East Side.

“It’s very sad and frustrating to see something like this,” church pastor James Karpen told the New York Daily News. “We need to focus on symbols that unite and not things that divide us.”