Woman Charged With Hate Crime for Anti-NYPD Graffitti

If I were to call you a bully, it would be
protected speech. If I were to spraypaint that same sentiment on
public property, it would be vandalism. And if I were to turn that
sentiment toward the New York Police Department (NYPD)? Apparently,

it would be a hate crime. That’s the charge leveled against
Rosella Best, a 36-year-old Brooklyn woman who spraypainted
messages such as “NYPD pick on the harmless” around
Williamsburg. 

Other messages, which Best spraypainted on cop cars and one
elementary-school wall, included “Nazis=NYPD”; “NYPD pick on the
innocent”; and (my personal favorite) “a wrongful arrest is a
crime.” 

Our graffiti justice warrior was caught on camera and arrested.
But instead of charging her with “defacement
of property” or merely “criminal mischief,” the NYPD booked her
on the more severe charge of criminal mischeif as a hate
crime, plus aggravated harassment. 

I would say this seems like good evidence that the NYPD does,
indeed, “pick on the harmless”—but I don’t need a federal hate
crime task force coming after me.
You
just
keep
doing
you,
NYPD.