A Montgomery County man wearing a Star of David necklace pendant was physically attacked last week in a Giant supermarket in Gaithersburg, a D.C. suburb located 42 miles from Baltimore.
According to court documents, the victim’s attackers yelled antisemitic epithets and were encouraged by others who invoked the name of controversial rapper Kanye West.
According to a press release issued by the Montgomery County Police Department, the unidentified victim was approached a group of individuals after rebuking them for tossing around fruit and stealing doughnuts at the supermarket.
“I went up to one of them and I said, ‘There are people starving in Ukraine and yet you are having a food fight …’” the victim told NBC’s Washington affiliate. “They started yelling obscenities at me, saying … ‘Fight him, fight him!’”
When the victim removed his jacket to defend himself, the group noticed he was wearing a Star of David and one man attacked him while making antisemitic statements, according to the police report.
“Yeah, do it for Kanye,” the victim quoted others in the group, according to a police charging document cited in local media.
“I unzipped my jacket and prepared to defend myself, and that’s when he saw my Star of David and said, ‘Let’s go, Jew,’” the victim told NBC4 Washington. “They ganged up on me and they said, ‘Get him for Kanye.’ And I had one person sitting on my legs, two people covering my torso, and one person covering my head and upper shoulders.”
Now known as Ye, West last year embarked on a spree of public antisemitism that caused his past praise for Adolf Hitler to be revealed. His name has become a rallying cry for extremist trolls.
The victim was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. Police said they arrested a man at a nearby McDonald’s named 19-year-old Eugene Thompson, who was being held without bail on assault and robbery charges. Police said they are investigating whether to add hate crime charges.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington has offered up to $5,000 for information leading to arrest and indictment of those responsible for several recent incidents of antisemitic vandalism and graffiti incidences in Montgomery County.
Ron Kampeas writes for the JTA global Jewish news source. Jmore staff contributed to this report.
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