Former cop sues NYPD over anti-Semitic abuse

A former New York City Police Department officer is suing the force for $150 million after facing what he claims was years of vicious anti-Semitic discrimination and abuse at the hands of his fellow officers, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by JNS.org.

Former NYPD officer David Attali said he was subjected to daily anti-Semitic harassment and ridicule by his colleagues, who constantly referred to him as “Jew,” “dirty Jew,” and “f***ing Jew,” according to the legal complaint.

Attali, a 31-year-old New York City resident who holds dual American and Israeli citizenship, said he endured the abuse for years before filing a complaint and resigning from the force just six years into his career.

The 26-page legal complaint viewed by JNS.org paints an oftentimes disturbing portrait of Attali’s time working as an officer in the department’s World Trade Center (WTC) Command.

Attali said he was subjected to daily anti-Semitic tirades that were not only tolerated by those on the force but condoned by top leaders at WTC Command.

“It started as ‘Jew’ and then its ‘you f***ing Jew’ and Hitler and the concentration camps,” Attali said during a telephone interview that took place in the presence of his lawyer, Rocco Avallone of Avallone & Bellistri. “They would throw change in my direction and say, ‘Can you resist it, Jew? Watch him go after it’.”

Attali also recalled “non-stop talk about concentration camps.”

His lawsuit targets the city of New York, as well as five WTC Command police officers, a deputy inspector, two sergeants, and a lieutenant, according to the complaint.

In addition to enduring near-constant verbal abuse, Attali said his workspace was repeatedly vandalized. Eventually, he said, it became too much for him to handle and quit the NYPD in August 2014.

“Three years is a long time,” he said. “Imagine for three years you’re not called by your name. It’s just ‘f’in Jew,’ ‘dirty Jew,’ every type of curse possible with ‘Jew’ after it. For three years. Nonstop.”