You remember the story of The Boy Who Cried, Wolf? If you do, you’re making my job a whole lot easier. If not, here’s the quick Sparknotes version of what goes down in this classic cautionary tale.
Scene 1: Boy cries about a wolf. Townspeople arrive. Find no wolf. Everyone heads back irritated at the boy’s false claim.
Scene 2: Boy cries wolf. Wolf actually appears. Townspeople don’t come. Boy gets eaten.
Get it?
Moral of the story: If you constantly tell lies, then eventually everyone around you will ignore you, and when you are actually in need and tell the truth, nobody can believe you because of your shitty track record.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of ‘little boys’ in our society making false claims to get attention. One of them is in our own backyard, Andrew King, a 54-year-old observant Jew.
On February 10th, King reported to The Daily Gazette, that he found two swastikas spray-painted on the outside of his Schenectady home. King describes finding the vandalism on his home that February morning as a “vein of fear that went right through him.”
According to an article published by USA Today, in recent months, there has been an increase in the number of hate crimes directed towards Jews, African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, and many more minority under scrutiny from our administration’s new agenda.
At this point in the story, it is understandable why King would be mortified by this hate crime. Just over the past month alone, there have been eyewitness accounts of vandalized tombstones, defamed synagogues, and desecrated Jewish Community Centers. Now we can add this account to the list of anti-Semitic acts, right?
Wrong.
King decided to keep the swastika displayed on the side of his house, to “show people who thrive on hate… that love trumps hate in the long run.” In retrospect, his opinion holds no merit because after the full investigation, police concluded that King was behind the swastikas the whole time.
Not only that, but the local Rabbi, Matt Cutler of the Congregation Gates of Heaven, snitched on King by telling Buzzfeed that King has never successfully converted to Judaism. Cutler added that he is no longer welcome at the local orthodox synagogue due to erratic behavior.
Rabbi Matt Cutler (Times Union)
People do unusual things when following their own agenda. I’m sure King thought that by doing this, it would create a dialogue to enhance the power of empathizing with other groups of people. Perhaps, he was attempting to bring together a community that has been stricken by hate to eliminate people who are rooted in pure evil. Or maybe, he’s just batshit crazy.
Let’s also note that King had told the Gazette last month that would “wring the necks” of whoever damaged his home, and it seemed like he tried to do just that:
King got arrested on Monday and was charged with a misdemeanor for falsifying a police report. King’s bail was set at $500 and is expected to be released after posting bail. For King, it’s not the worst result…
He could’ve been fed to the wolves.
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