Two tourists from Germany were arrested in Miami Beach on Monday after defacing a rainbow Pride bench writing “Adolf was here” and adding a swastika.
From CBS News Miami:
According to the Miami Beach Police Department, officers were called to the area of 12th Street and Ocean Drive to investigate reports that antisemitic symbols were found on the bench inside Lummus Park.
Police said that responding officers observed graffiti stating “Adolf was here” next to a swastika.
Security cameras in the area captured video of the men, with one writing and drawing the graffiti while the other appeared to try and obstruct the act from public view.
The Miami Beach Police Department’s Real Time Intelligence Center (RTIC) was able to use city cameras to immediately identify and track the two men in question, police said.
The two men, identified as Christoph Rehak and Gunther Manfred Jekschtat from Germany, confessed to the crime during police interviews. They said it was meant as “a joke.”
Both Rehak and Jekschtat are charged with criminal mischief, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Prosecutors are now reviewing the case to see if the charges meet the requirements for them to be elevated to a hate crime, which would be a third-degree felony.
As you can see in the video footage, the bench sits next to the beachfront rainbow sidewalk that was recently installed using bricks from a rainbow crosswalk destroyed under Gov. Ron DeSantis’s orders.
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