(New York Jewish Week/JTA) — While waiting for the L train in Union Square one Sunday earlier this month, a commuter named Liz saw something — or rather someone — whose actions alarmed her and a few other New Yorkers. Troubled me for more than a while. Year: A white man, wearing a leather jacket and a black hoodie, was writing a neo-Nazi slogan in black marker on a support beam.
Liz photographs the man but he quickly flees. Since then, he and other city workers have been searching for the man, whom they have dubbed “The L Train Nazi”. His graffiti of choice appears to be the number “1488”, a neo-Nazi code recognized as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.
“I actually saw someone doodle on the pillar,” Liz told New York Jewish Week. “Of course, he was writing ‘1488’.” I was like, ‘Get some pictures.’ she looked at me and tried to ignore it [me] And act like nothing happened.”
Liz, like some of the other activists who spoke to New York Jewish Week for this article, declined to give her full name or many details about herself, for fear of being harmed by those same white supremacists. Which he has spent the last few years trying. To expose As an extreme-right activist, Liz said she has attended many far-right and neo-Nazi events in cities in the Northeast. At these events, she said she physically confronted rally-goers and was arrested twice.
Liz said the recent encounter at the L train platform did not turn into violence. “He didn’t want to press charges of assault, and I didn’t want to press charges of assault,” she said. “He left and I forwarded the pictures.”
The number 1488, in neo-Nazi slang, stands for two different things: 14 stands for a 14-word white supremacist creed – “We must secure the existence of our people and the future of white children” – and 88 stands for Means “Heil Hitler,” because “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
BREAKING: ‘L Train Nazi’ caught in the act
For years, people have been reporting typographically similar ‘1488’ tags (a Nazi slogan: https://t.co/mlPBKKSDWW) in the subway, often along the L line.
As a result, Tager was dubbed ‘The L Train Nazi’. , pic.twitter.com/ssNnYaTzDC
— Talia Jane ❤️???? (@taliaotg) February 8, 2023
In early November 2021, other Twitter users took pictures of similar graffiti at subway stations on the L and M lines in Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. This isn’t the first time hate symbols have plagued the L train: In 2019 two trains were removed from the line after MTA officers discovered anti-Nazi stickers (which partially displayed a swastika) on the train I went.
Talia Jane, a Brooklyn-based freelance reporter of Jewish descent, collated some of the photos in a Twitter thread following Liz’s conversation. The tweets have been shared 1,300 times in the week since they were posted. Photos of the suspect “El Tren Nazi” have been viewed nearly 800,000 times.
“People began to notice similar tags with similar markers and similar handwriting styles,” Jane told New York Jewish Week. “It was assumed that there was a person behind these recurring tags.”
When asked by this reporter about the graffiti, the New York Police Department said it “has nothing on file” regarding these markings.
MTA spokeswoman Kayla Schultz told New York Jewish Week in an emailed statement that “the subway system has no place for acts of hate of any kind, including anti-Semitic vandalism.”
“When viewed, objectionable content is rapidly removed,” Schultz said. “The MTA is at the forefront of public service campaigns promoting respect and tolerance for all riders.”
Efforts to find the person behind the graffiti are also taking place offline. Elsa Waithe, 34, a comedian from East New York, first saw the “1488” graffiti at the L train Livonia stop in November 2021. Waithe covered it up with a sticker, but kept seeing similar graffiti nearby. Now, Waithe is putting up flyers at stations across the L line that say “#SubwayNazi” and display the man’s face.
Be on the lookout,” reads the flyer. “This guy was recently caught writing Nazi tags in the NYC subway.”
“I personally plan to put up these posters every weekend, for at least a month or two, so he knows that people now know him,” Waithe told New York Jewish Week. “My friend asked me what I was doing. I said, ‘Essentially, Nazi-hunting.'”
Waithe said he made it his “mission” to always cover the “1488” tag with stickers, but noted that other people began posting pictures of the tag at stations approaching Manhattan—including Myrtle. Wyckoff, Grand Street, and eventually Union Square.
Just left the Livonia L train station and it looks like the same ass from earlier has left another 1488 on the stairs. I’ll be back after work to cover it but if someone can get it before me that would be nice. It’s on the Manhattan bound side. pic.twitter.com/bCpWBJTxnE
– ⬛????Harriet Thugman⬛???? (@elsajustelsa) November 15, 2021
“He was putting them in very obvious places,” Waithe said. “Livonia is right next to public housing. It’s a black neighborhood. It pissed me off that someone would threaten the community. It is what it is, a threat.
Waithe feels that coded numbers such as 1488 and 1352, a racist anti-black slogan, allowed the perpetrator to hide the Nazi message in plain sight.
“If he had put a swastika, we all know what that is,” Waithe said. “It’s just a coded swastika. It’s the exact same thing, it’s just not as widely known, so he can keep it and be wise, or say it means something else. There’s some plausible rebuttal.” .
New York state ranked seventh nationally in the number of white supremacist propaganda incidents in 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Waite said, “Nobody wants a Nazi in their neighborhood.” “We all ride this train, we all live in this town. Is there a network [of activists], No, it’s just concerned citizens.
Sophie Elman-Golan, a spokeswoman for the Jewish progressive group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, praised the efforts of those who are “keeping an eye on the subway Nazi.”
Elman-Golan told New York Jewish Week, “This particular Nazi has spent years trying to make Jews, black people and all marginalized groups feel uncomfortable and unloved on the subway.” “But it must be making Nazis feel uncomfortable and unwanted — on the subway and in our city and state.”
