Oneonta Teen Arrested
For Putting Up Nazi Fliers
18-Year-Old Is Freshman At SUNY Purchase
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – An Oneonta teen was arrested and charged with a hate crime after allegedly posting as many as 16 pro-Nazi posters around the SUNY Purchase campus, where he’s a student.
Gunnar Hassard, 18, Oneonta, a freshman at SUNY Purchase, was arrested by University Police after he allegedly hung posters with Nazi imagery, including swastikas and images of Adolph Hitler.
The fliers appeared in areas of the campus “frequented and utilized by members of the Jewish community…causing alarm, fear and annoyance to the members of the campus community during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah,” according to Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr.
He was arraigned in Harrison Town Court yesterday and charged with Aggravated Harassment in the First Degree, a class E felony.
The DA noted that the charge is for a hate crime, which specifically states a person is guilty of this crime when one “Etches, paints, draws upon or otherwise places a swastika, commonly exhibited as the emblem of Nazi Germany, on any building or other real property…”
His bail was set at $5,000 cash bail or bond and he is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 9.