It is “unbelievable” that the Santa Monica Police Department did not immediately classify an incident, in which a man allegedly displayed a bat, chased a Jewish couple and called them “genocidal,” as a hate crime, according to Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center,
“When someone attacks innocent, Jewish pedestrians while screaming Israel-related collective-guilt accusations, that is not just ‘political speech,’” Goldfeder said. “It is evidence of motive.”
“The bat, the chase, the threats and the dog are the crime,” he told JNS. “The words explain why he picked them as his target.”
The incident, which occurred on May 24, underscores the importance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred, according to Goldfeder.
“Without it, officials pretend not to understand the difference between criticism of Israel and blaming or attacking innocent American Jews because you don’t like Israel,” he told JNS.
Lt. Lewis Gilmour, a spokesman for the Santa Monica Police Department, told JNS that the department is “aware of concerns raised regarding whether this incident involved hate-motivated conduct.”
“Detectives are reviewing that issue as part of the ongoing investigation, including reports, body-worn camera footage, witness statements and available video evidence,” he said. “At this stage, the charges reflect the evidence developed in the initial investigation.”
The case has been submitted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for possible charges, the department said.
The incident occurred around 5:20 p.m. on May 24 near Third Street and Broadway, according to the police department. The suspect, identified as Tar Nay, stopped his vehicle in traffic and began shouting threats at two pedestrians crossing the street, the department told JNS.
Nay “displayed a baseball bat from inside the vehicle before exiting and chasing one of the victims on foot while continuing to make threats,” according to the department. “During the confrontation, the suspect’s dog bit one of the victims, who was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Nay was arrested on Sunday and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats, Gilmour told JNS. The dog was taken to a local shelter by animal control officers.
Jail records show that Nay is being held on $50,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on May 29.
A video shared on social media by the advocacy group StopAntisemitism appears to show a man yelling “you are genocidal” at two people before returning to his car and then running after them with his dog.
David Englin, senior regional director for the Anti-Defamation League’s Los Angeles office, told JNS that the organization has been in contact with police but that authorities have not yet classified the incident as an antisemitic hate crime.
Englin said that his understanding, based on conversations with police, is that the victims who filmed the incident are Jewish and that the suspect also shouted “incendiary profanities at a variety of different people.”
“Violence against the Jewish community has continued to increase,” he told JNS. “We take a case like this very seriously. Part of our response is working closely with law enforcement to understand the details of the case.”
Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, told JNS that “we are outraged by the news of yet another attack targeting a Jewish couple in Santa Monica.”
“Coming just one month after the violent assault of a Jewish man outside of Adas Torah synagogue, this incident underscores a deeply alarming rise in antisemitism in Los Angeles and across the country,” Farkas said. “These are not isolated acts. They are part of a growing and dangerous pattern of hate and violence targeting the Jewish community.”
“This moment demands urgent and unequivocal action,” he told JNS. “We call upon all Angelenos to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish community in condemning this hatred and ensuring that violence and intimidation against Jews are never accepted, minimized or normalized.”
