Fort Lauderdale, FL - Three teenagers were arrested in connection with antisemitic graffiti found in a South Florida neighborhood in October.
The Broward Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of three 16-year-olds in connection with the crime during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
The teens were accused of spray painting antisemitic graffiti in the same Weston neighborhood on two separate occasions in October, with the first incident happening on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday.
Swastikas and racial slurs were spray-painted throughout the Weston neighborhood on playgrounds, trees and signs.
Two of the teens were charged with three counts of criminal mischief, two counts of burglary and one count of public order crime prejudice.
The third juvenile is facing two counts of criminal mischief and burglary.
According to their arrest report, the teens confessed to the crimes, telling police they vandalized the same neighborhood twice because they found the situation humorous after seeing a news report about the first incident.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said during Wednesday's press conference “because my understanding, talking to our detectives and our officers who investigated the individuals and interviewed them, now there is a sentiment of remorse and regret, and now they are talking about this is supposed to be a joke. This is not a laughing matter. Maybe we need to do a better job of educating our youth about the severe impacts of the Holocaust and slavery and racism and how that has divided this community for hundreds of years and maybe it will change their receptiveness to seeing this isn’t a joke. This does have a damaging effect.”
Sheriff Tony said of the charges "they have been charged appropriately with felony charges here, two include the escalation of the hate crime component for two out of the three of them. I can care less if you’re 14, 15, 16, 38 or 75, we’re going to charge you accordingly."