A journalist who documented pro-Palestinian protesters splattering paint on the homes of the heads of the Brooklyn Museum has been arrested for participating in the vandalism, police said Tuesday.
Samuel Seligson, an independent videographer, was charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime for being present when six protesters on June 12 splattered red paint outside a Hicks St. building in Brooklyn Heights where Brooklyn Museum Executive Director Anne Pasternak lives, cops confirmed.
But Seligson’s attorney, Leena Widdi, said that the criminal charges were an “appalling” overreach since the videographer didn’t take part in the vandalism.
“Samuel is being charged for alleged behavior that is protected by the First Amendment and consistent with his job as a credentialed member of the press,” Widdi said. “What is even more concerning, however, is that this member of the press is being charged with a hate crime.”
Seligson, 32, is a fixture at New York City protests who has licensed and sold footage to mainstream outlets, including Reuters and ABC News, Widdi said.
He was previously arrested in May at a separate pro-Gaza demonstration, officials said. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was livestreaming the demonstration as police made arrests and identified himself as a journalist. A spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney said that case had since been closed and sealed.
On Aug. 1, cops arrested Taylor Pelton, 28, after identifying her as one of the vandals. She, too, was charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime.
Vandals also painted inverted red triangles on the doors of Pasternak’s building, which Jewish advocates say are “symbols used by terrorists to mark targets they want to take out.”
The same day a home on Douglass St. in Boerum Hill — home to a museum board member — was also splashed with paint.
Police later released surveillance video of the wanted suspects and classified the incidents as hate crimes.
The vandalism was linked to opposition against the museum’s investment in companies with ties to the Israeli military.
Video of the vandalism in progress was posted to the Instagram account for A15 Actions, an international group of activists whose goal is to disrupt economies they view as participating in the bloodshed in Gaza.
A statement published along with the video said “artists and cultural workers” were responsible for the vandalism and that it was done in response to what the activists see as the Brooklyn Museum’s betrayal by supposedly calling police during a protest there on May 31.
That day, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside the museum demanding that it divest from Israel, with some getting into the building and setting up tents before police arrested 34 people.
On the night Pasternak’s home was vandalized, 15 protesters on the Upper East Side splattered the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations with red paint. The suspects fled in a white U-Haul truck.
The German Consulate in Manhattan was also hit with red paint on May 29, and according to a social media post by Palestine Action US, plastered with flyers that read in part, “We sincerely apologize for the genocide we are committing in Gaza.”
Police said Pelton is expected to be charged with two similar vandalism events in Manhattan on the same day as the Brooklyn incidents.
Pelton was released without bail after being arraigned, officials said. Seligson’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending Tuesday.
With John Annese and wire services
