​The woman who was allegedly raped by Michael Pena, who was an NYPD officer off-duty, in August testified against him yesterday. The 25-year-old teacher explained that Pena asked how to get to the 1 train. After she did so, he still showed her he gun, brought her to an alleyway, forced her to perform oral sex at gunpoint, and raped and sodomized her. Pena's lawyer has said that while his client did assault the woman there was no sexual penetration based on DNA evidence. [NY1, NYT]

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​The Daily News wants to know: Are there neo-Nazis in Greenpoint?

The question comes about after a series of pics taken by Brooklyn photog Adam Krause apparently hit the web Monday evening, in which he chronicled five self-professed Polish neo-Nazis. Gawker seems to have broken the story, and did disclose that Klause is "a friend." The news site treated the scoop as true.

The Daily Mail quickly picked up Krause's saga, prompting him and his subjects to become the object of international attention.

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​One or more thiefs attacked Congregation Rachel Degel Israel recently -- stealing silver Torah ornaments -- and cops want your help catching them.

The crims hit the Kew Gardens synagogue, located at 144-02 68 Drive, sometime between 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25.

The perps pilfered three silver Torah crowns and mini-crowns, three breastplates, four pointers, and one cup. 

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​A recent spate of anti-semitic hate crimes has prompted Queens Assemblyman Rory Lancman to propose a law that would toughen penalties on perps who vandalize houses of worship.

The proposed measure would amend the current penal code, so vandalism and thefts that take place on religious property would generally be considered acts of criminal mischief and grand larceny in the third degree.

What this means? Criminal mischief and grand larceny in the third degree count as class-D felonies. So, they would carry prison sentences of up to 7 years.

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Swastika found in Midwood.

​A week after midtown storefronts were vandalized with swastikas, there are reports of more of the symbols being found in Brooklyn over the weekend in Midwood. DCPI told Runnin' Scared they are is being investigated as "possible bias incidents"

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Mourners spoke against trans violence outside Camila's apartment

​About a hundred people gathered on 110th Street, "Tito Puente Way," in East Harlem last night to remember the life of Camila Guzman. The vigil, sponsored by the Anti-Violence Project, took place outside of Camila's apartment, where she was found murdered last week.

We've been to too many of these types of candle light memorials in the past year, usually in cold weather months. But this one, taking place on a warm summer evening, when the candles were useless in the evening sun of a long August twilight, was different. The absence of Camila, for the friends, strangers, and members of the NYPD who were out for the vigil, seemed especially jarring, given how basketball games and ice cream trucks and kids playing in sprinklers were going on raucously through out El Barrio without her.

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Rais Bhuiyan's plea

​Rais Bhuiyan, the Texas man brutally injured in a post-9/11 shooting spree that killed at least two, is still fighting for the life of his assailant, Mark Anthony Stroman, whose Texas execution is scheduled for tomorrow. On September 21, 2001, Stroman marched into the service station where Bhuiyan was working and asked him, "Where are you from?" before shooting him in the face at close range. Though he survived, Bhuiyan is partially blind in his right eye even after multiple surgeries. A Hindu man named Vasudev Patel and a Muslim man named Waqar Hasan were both killed by Stroman, but Bhuiyan's World Without Hate campaign encourages us "to break the cycle of hate and violence" through "forgiveness." Ahead of Stroman's execution, both men spoke to the New York Times.

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Jason Fordell

​On his late-night commute home from the East Village, where he sells leather accessories in a club, Jason Fordell was assaulted on a 4 train in the Bronx; he says it was a hate crime. The self-described "small, little white kid with long hair" says a group of four young black men were harassing him. "People started saying stupid little comments -- cracker this, white boy this, faggot this," Fordell said. "I told them the only reason they were saying this is there was four of them and one of me."

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​ Over the weekend, 46 year-old Simchon Schwartz was arrested for hate crimes against his Turkish neighbors who he is accused of assaulting while yelling, "Fucking arabs! Fucking terrorists!" Yesterday, Schwartz's daughter, Mazo, insisted that her father did not instigate the fight and that he is not a racist. She told the Daily News, "I'm very upset because I'm dating a Muslim and my family is being called racist."

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​Things got scary in Mill Basin on Saturday night when Simchon Schwartz, a 46-year-old hasidic man, harassed and then attacked his newlywed Turkish neighbors. Witnesses reported that Schwartz grabbed Selda Turan, 27, and shoved her against her car while screaming, "Fucking Arabs! Fucking terrorists!" He proceeded to open a can of beer and pour it on her head. When her husband, Mustafa Turan, ran to her defense, Schwartz hit him in the face. Schwartz then hid in a local synagogue and attempted to fight off the police when they arrived to arrest him.

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