{"id":961050,"date":"2026-07-26T20:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T20:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/961050\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T20:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T20:10:37","slug":"upper-west-side-residents-rally-demanding-action-after-hate-crime-stabbings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/961050\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper West Side residents rally, demanding action, after hate crime stabbings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upper West Side residents took to the streets in anger Sunday over recent hate crime stabbings in the area, charging that rhetoric from Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> contributed to the violence.<\/p>\n

Members of the Jewish community and conservative activist groups \u2014 including those seeking public office \u2014 gathered together on Amsterdam Avenue between 84th and 85th Street for several hours on the morning of July 26. Wrapping themselves in the American and Israeli flags, locals say they have been left in fear following Thursday\u2019s attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A local mother who gave her name as Dina told amNewYork that she doesn\u2019t want her daughter wearing her Star of David necklace when she is alone out of fear she will be attacked.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Local Upper Westsiders took to the streets in anger Sunday over recent hate crime stabbings in the area, and rhetoric from the Mayor, they charge, contributed to the violence.Photo by Dean Moses \"\"Local Upper Westsiders took to the streets in anger Sunday over recent hate crime stabbings in the area, and rhetoric from the Mayor, they charge, contributed to the violence.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

\u201cShe feels proud. She doesn\u2019t want to be afraid, but you know, we told her she can wear it as long as she walks with us on the street, but she cannot wear it when she walks alone,\u201d Dina said. \u201cWe have a group class in the school, and parents are actually organizing to do a self-defense class for kids and adults. It breaks my heart that that\u2019s where we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to police sources, 51-year-old Raul Morales was tracked to a NYCHA building after he allegedly went on a stabbing spree. about 1:30 p.m. on July 23, stabbing a 40-year-old Asian man walking near the corner of West 84th Street and Central Park West. Morales allegedly approached the bystander from behind and stabbed him in the back with a knife, leaving the blade jutting from his skin.<\/p>\n

\"UpperRaul Morales, 51, rants and raves to the press during his perp walk after his arrest for stabbing two men on the Upper West Side, with one of the attacks listed as a hate crime.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

Two blocks away on West 86th Street, a 50-year-old Jewish man was stabbed in the chest by the same suspect, authorities said. This time, the suspect\u2019s weapon of choice was a screwdriver.<\/p>\n

In both instances, sources close to the investigation said, the perpetrator allegedly shouted \u201cAllahu Akbar,\u201d which is Arabic for \u201cGod is great.\u201d Both of his attacks have since been upgraded to hate crimes.<\/p>\n

Those at the rally say they lay some of the blame at the feet of Mamdani for recent criticisms Hizzoner made about Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that the Prime Minister of Israel is not welcome in New York. Some members of the Jewish community feel as though these statements put them at risk.<\/p>\n

\"\"Those at the rally say they lay some of the blame at the feet of Mayor Mamdani for recent criticisms Hizzoner made about Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that the Prime Minister of Israel is not welcome in New York. Some members of the Jewish community feel as though these statements put them at risk.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to support the rights of the Jewish people to live in safety in the city of New York, the rights of our children to go to Jewish schools, the rights of people to go to houses of worship safely, and we see what has happened as a result of Mamdani\u2019s words. We saw stabbings this week, and I\u2019m concerned that this is just the beginning of real horror in this city,\u201d local resident Arthur said. \u201cI live on the Upper West Side. I plan on taking a self-defense course now. I\u2019m not sure about getting a license for a gun, but that\u2019s crossing my mind. I think Jews have to learn how to defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the mayor was asked about the hate crimes and stated that antisemitism is unacceptable and must be driven out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no tolerance for hate in this city. There\u2019s no tolerance for bigotry. We know that while Jewish New Yorkers constitute a minority in the city, they continue to comprise a majority of the victims of all hate crimes across the five boroughs\u2014and that is unacceptable,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cIt is work that we must do to uproot antisemitism out of the five boroughs, and that includes by making it clear that there\u2019s no tolerance for it, and that this is a city that will not only look to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe, we also look to celebrate and cherish Jewish New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office says it has supersized the budget for preventing hate crimes\u2014whose victims are disproportionately Jewish\u2014increasing the budget for the New York City Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes<\/a> from $3 million to $26 million, a nearly ninefold increase.<\/p>\n

\"\"A counter-protest set itself up just across the street, and a pro-Palestine and self-described anti-Zionist Jewish group came to the defense of the mayor.Photo by Dean Moses \"\"Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

A counter-protest set itself up just across the street, and a pro-Palestine and self-described anti-Zionist Jewish group came to the defense of the mayor.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are coming out and disparaging and trying to vilify Mayor Mamdani when he stands courageously and speaks for the hurt and the suffering of the Palestinian people who are being murdered, and he says that he simply wants to stand up and stop this terrible murder in Palestine,\u201d Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upper West Side residents took to the streets in anger Sunday over recent hate crime stabbings in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":961051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,71627,4219,248857,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,7358,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-961050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-antisemitic","tag-crime","tag-mayor-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-stabbing","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116988100781367429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}