A Colorado man was charged with a hate crime on Wednesday for allegedly defacing the Charging Bull statue in New York City in 2021 with Nazi emblems and racist epithets.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office reported that James Ryan, 40, was charged with three felonies for aggravated harassment in the first degree and three felonies for criminal mischief as a hate crime.
On December 13, 2021, Ryan is accused of drawing a swastika and an anti-Black insult on a pillar outside City Hall, according to Manhattan prosecutors.
The next day, according to authorities, he reportedly spray-painted the same items in front of a CVS in the Financial District and a “big swastika” on the Charging Bull statue close to Wall Street.
“Hate has no place in New York City and these offensive and damaging actions will not be tolerated,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement announcing the indictment.
