Four self-described “Skinheads” were arraigned Monday night in New York State Criminal Court by Judge Leona Freedman for having beaten and robbed a New Jersey man while calling out white supremacist slogans.
William Stump of Bayonne, N.J., was violently beaten Saturday night by four tattooed, shaven-head Skinheads dressed in leather, who used their boots to kick the 31-year-old man on the stairs of a subway station of PATH, the transit line connecting New York City to New Jersey.
About 30 persons in the station observed the attack in the Ninth Street PATH station in Manhattan and did nothing. Some have since come forward, according to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s office, which pressed the charges.
A spokesperson for the D.A.’s office, Colleen Roche, said that John Himmelstein, 23, and Matthew Andrews, 20, of Philadelphia; Harry Wilson, 17, of Morrisville, Pa.; and John Cook, 22, of Nutley, N.J., were each charged as adults with robbery in the second degree and assault in the second degree.
Stump alleges that the four forcibly stole his wallet, punched and kicked him, causing Stump to suffer broken bones in his face and cuts and bruises on his body.
One of the Skinheads allegedly approached Stump, who was accompanied by his wife and infant daughter, and called out “Be white. Be right.”
Stump told Port Authority police the Skinhead asked if he were German and then gave him a “Sieg Heil” Nazi salute.
Stump alleges that Andrews hit him with a glass bottle, and that all four of them then kicked him in the head with their boots.
A PATH worker who observed the act on the station’s video camera alerted police, who ran to the scene and arrested them.
Skinheads have been active in other American cities, but Skinheads in the New York area appear to be young people who dress similarly but do not espouse Nazi rhetoric or violence.
One Skinhead bore a swastika tattoo and another a head tattoo that said “Made in the USA.”
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