c/o Citizen
Officers found broken glass and graffiti at an Upper East Side bank early Monday morning, and one of the city’s top officials wants to know whether it was a hate crime.
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The vandalism was at the Capital One branch at East 86th Street and Second Avenue, where officers observed broken glass and graffiti written on the glass around 7:40 a.m., according to the NYPD. Officers couldn’t decipher what the graffiti said, and there were no injuries, the NYPD said.By 8:08 a.m., police had blocked off the area around the bank, according to an update on Citizen.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin called the vandalism “deeply disturbing and unacceptable” in a post on X Monday morning. She said she’s been in contact with the NYPD and has urged an immediate investigation, “including whether this is a potential antisemitic hate crime.”
A photo Menin shared with her post shows shattered windows on both sides of the bank’s entrance and red graffiti on its glass doors, including the words “Pal Action” and what appears to read “Drop Elbit.”
“Pal Action” is a common shorthand for Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian activist group. The group, which was co-founded in 2020, has focused on Israel-linked defense companies in Britain, particularly Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defense firm, according to Reuters. The British government banned Palestine Action under terrorism laws in 2025, making membership in or support for the group a crime there, and an appeals court ruled in June that the ban was lawful.
Capital One has also been the target of protests by a U.S. campaign called Eject Elbit, which has called on the bank to drop what organizers say is a $90 million loan to Elbit’s Arlington, VA-based company, according to FFXnow. Organizers have picketed Capital One branches and are urging people to boycott the bank.
Neither Menin nor the NYPD has publicly connected either group to the vandalism, and Menin’s post didn’t specify what prompted the hate crime question.
“There is no place for hate, intimidation or violence in New York City,” Menin wrote.
The NYPD didn’t share any information about a suspect.
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