After a 3-week long investigation by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force, police have arrested an employee with the Department of Parks and Recreation who allegedly hung a doll at the Parks Department’s Bronx headquarters on Bronx Park East.
Police were called to the site on Tuesday, December 20, after workers discovered a black doll hanging from its neck by a metal chain, inside a fenced-off area, but was clearly in public view. A photo was taken and quickly distributed to media outlets by the group New York City Park Advocates.
Last Thursday, the NYPD announced the arrest of Fariz Ahmemulic, described as a 38-year-old white male, charging him with aggravated harassment and aggravated harassment as a hate crime. He was released without bail.
Repeated attempts to reach Ahmemulic, believed to be a resident of Morris Park, were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the Parks Department has suspended Ahmemulic without pay and the worker who discovered the doll has served the city with court papers notifying the city he plans to sue for, “emotional distress.”
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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This is a most unfortunate act of stupidity based upon ignorance and the offender should be dealt with by his employer, the NYC Dept of Parks. Certainly a public apology, the loss of work due to a suspension and mandatory sensitivity training is in order.
What also concerns me is that according to the info supplied in this article and attributed to the NYPD is the race of the arrestee. Now, I don’t think that placing a persons race in a physical description is wrong, indeed it is most helpful and yet there appears to be a double standard. Routinely, TV and other media would describe even the most violent criminal wanted in connection with a crime, absent his/her race.
Sometimes, race is used to sensationalize or heighten sterotypes and foster intolerance. The name of the arrestee was given a FARIZ and it was noted he was “white”. In nearly sixty years I never met a white dude named FARIZ. Wait, could it be that “race” had to be different from that of the doll in order for it to have been considered a ‘hate crime”…….oh……my bad….