Black Vandal of St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Not Charged With Hate Crime, No Jail

A Black man from suburban St. Louis was sentenced to only three years probation for toppling more than 100 headstones at a local Jewish cemetery:

Alzado Harris, 35, was charged a year ago for the vandalism caused at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in suburban St. Louis in February 2017, which totaled more than $30,000 in damage.

After his arrest last year, Harris admitted to the crime, saying he was drunk, on drugs and angry at a friend and took it out on the cemetery. He was not charged with a bias or hate crime.

“There is no evidence to indicate the incident was racially, ethnically or religiously motivated,” University City police said in a statement at the time of his arrest.

Harris on Thursday pleaded guilty to felony institutional vandalism, the St. Louis Dispatch reported. In addition to the three years’ probation, he was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution, maintain full-time work, take an anger management course, and not contact the victim, the newspaper reported citing court records.

The attack came as Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions around the country were receiving dozens of bomb threats.

In the wake of the attack, Eric Greitens, who is Jewish and was Missouri’s governor at the time, volunteered with members of his staff to help clean and repair the damage to the cemetery, and Vice President Mike Pence visited the cemetery, picking up a rake to help with cleanup efforts.

Two Muslim activists, Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi, launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $20,000 for repairs, which ultimately raised over $162,000 and also paid to repair and restore two other vandalized US Jewish cemeteries and a vandalized synagogue.

The local Jewish Federation also raised some $250,000 to provide security upgrades for Chesed Shel Emeth and all Jewish cemeteries in and around the city.

The cemetery was repaired and rededicated in August 2017. The repairs included upgraded security, including cameras, lighting and higher fencing.

This vandalism was determined to not be a ‘hate crime’ because the perpetrator is Black, and according to the official narrative, only White people commit ‘hate crimes’.  There can be little doubt that if the vandal had turned out to be White, he would have done mandatory prison time, and the national media would not have shut up about it.  But because Alzado Harris is a Black drug addict, he has a built-in excuse for any anti-social behavior, even dreaded antisemitism.

What is also remarkable is that over $400K was raised to cover only $20K in damage, and that money was raised under the pretense that this was some sort of ‘hate crime’.  But now that it’s revealed to not be a hate crime, it’s highly doubtful that any of the donations will be returned.  After all, it seems that only jewish cemeteries need high security cameras and fencing, so perhaps Harris did the Jews a favor in helping them get these security upgrades paid for without lifting a finger.