Wilkinson, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, was charged with one count of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime. Police cited Wilkinson’s presence as a photographer at an incident of vandalism at the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan on July 30, as well as their alleged reposting of social media comments critical of Times staff members with alleged pro-Israel bias or connections.
The complaint primarily accuses Wilkinson of posting “a threatening social media message targeting the Jewish editor of the New York Times,” as summarized in a court record. Wilkinson allegedly shared screenshots of an X post that read “They hanged newspaper editors at Nuremberg.” The complaint said Wilkinson captioned the screenshots with the phrase “Looking at you [Joseph Kahn],” referring to the Times’s executive editor. Another post attributed to Wilkinson criticized conservative Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens, who has denied that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Hyperallergic has not independently verified the existence of the posts.
Last month, protesters doused Kahn’s apartment building in red paint in an unrelated action, which prosecutors referenced during Wilkinson’s hearing even though the photographer has not been charged with any involvement in that incident.
https://hyperallergic.com/1045489/activists-condemn-arrest-of-nyc-protest-photographer-alexa-wilkinson/