Albany police are holding a 50-year-old New York State employe suspected of distributing hundreds of anti-Semitic flyers in the heavily Jewish-populated Pine Hills section of the city since last fall. Police announced the arrest early yesterday morning of Haviland Willard Davis, a senior architect in the Division of Design and Construction of the Office of General Services here.
He was apprehended by Patrolman John Madison at 5:16 a.m. while fastening anti-Semitic messages under the windshield wipers of parked cars in the Pine Hills neighborhood only a few blocks from his home. He was charged with aggravated harassment, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. Davis, who is unmarried, lives with his parents and earns more than $20,000 a year, was sent to Albany County jail for psychiatric examination pending a hearing next Tuesday. Bail was not set.
Albany County District Attorney Sol Greenberg and Albany Police Chief Edward C. McArdle reported numerous complaints during the last several months of anti-Semitic material affixed to car windshields. Although much of Albany’s Jewish population is concentrated in Pine Hills, many of the complaints come from non-Jewish residents who were “outraged,” Greenberg said. The messages, crudely printed in purple ink on pink or white paper said, ” Jews Beware–Look You Scoffers, Wonder and Die: Acts 13-41.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
