The young people are 16 years old and are expected to go to court soon.
Multiple arrests have been made following multiple occasions of spray-painting racist and anti-Semitic messages in a Broward County community.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony held a press conference Wednesday at 4 p.m. to formally announce the arrests.
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“These are hate crimes on the surface,” Tony said.
BSO: Arrests made in antisemitic spray-painting in Weston https://t.co/r8AnI64aHS
— CBS News Miami (@CBSMiami) November 30, 2022
Three teenagers, who have not been identified, were detained. They are all 16 years old.
“I don’t care if you’re 14, 15, 16, 38 or 75, we’ll charge you accordingly,” the spokesperson added.
In the past month, there were at least two incidents of vandalism in Weston in which racist and anti-Semitic comments and symbols were left inside the Weston Hills Country Club’s gaited Hunter’s Point community, one of which occurred on Yom Kippur, a solemn religious holiday. bean.
The second incident saw hate messages left at a children’s playground.
Tony said the teens were residents of the community where the crimes occurred.
“They are local residents within the community and the problem we have here is the fact that we can’t afford to dismiss these threats,” Tony said. “We have to treat each and every one of them if it’s serious and if it’s serious.”
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The damage to clean up the mess was in the thousands of dollars.
Authorities are announcing arrests in connection with multiple incidents of racist and antisemitic graffiti being spray painted in a Weston neighborhood. https://t.co/E084qjLpZC
— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) November 30, 2022
As for the motive, police said the trio claimed to have done everything to get attention.
“Speaking to the officers who investigated the individuals and interviewed them, there is now a feeling of remorse and regret. Now they’re talking about how this was supposed to be a joke. This is no laughing matter.”
Detectives said the three teens confessed to varying degrees to their involvement in the crimes.
Two of the teens face three counts of criminal mischief, two counts of burglary of a structure and one count of mischief for crimes against public order. The public order crime mischief charge is a hate crime escalation.
The third teen faces two counts of criminal mischief and one count of burglary from a structure.