Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Mayors Denounce Hateful Messages Found in Villages

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A volunteer scrapes off a sticker containing racist language from a sign in Sleepy Hollow

January 7, 2021

By Robert Kimmel–

The Mayors of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow are united in their forceful condemnation of the racism reflected in dozens of stickers located and subsequently removed from poles and signs within the two villages.

Squads of volunteering residents worked for more than ten hours over the weekend, combing the streets searching for the stickers and detaching them.

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“We stand with Mayor Ken Wray and with our sister Village of Sleepy Hollow in condemning and denouncing this right wing, white supremacist hate group and, or individuals who spread this type of hatred throughout our Villages,” Tarrytown Mayor Tom Butler stated during the Village’s Board of Trustee’s meeting Tuesday evening.

While acknowledging that “2020 has been a tough year and we welcome and look forward to the renewed hope and uplift that 2021 will bring,” said Butler. “Unfortunately, 2020 ended on a sad and abhorrent note, with pictures of Neo-Nazi images, stickers discovered on Friday and Saturday across the 10591-zip code,which includes both Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.”

“It is my understanding that this group’s website was printed on their stickers and is deemed an anti-Semitic, anti-minority, and white supremacist hate group,” the Mayor explained. “These messages contain hateful rhetoric and are un-American. Tarrytown is a proud and diverse community and we collectively reject the efforts and activities of these racist groups in our diverse and tolerant neighborhoods and communities.”

Butler expressed his thanks to those who spoke out against the messages and helped to remove them from public properties.

As Sleepy Hollow Mayor Wray has done, Butler has engaged his village police department, saying, “Be advised that Police Chief John Barbelet has opened an investigation in this matter and has detectives working on it.” He also reported that the village has been in contact with the Westchester District Attorney’s office, adding, “Anyone with information is encouraged to call Tarrytown detectives directly at 914-631-1514.

Mayor Wray has stated his position clearly. “I am extremely disturbed by the Patriot Front affront that has reared an ugly and unwelcome head in our village. This far right white supremacist hate group has no place here — or anywhere,” he said earlier this week.

The village’s Police Chief, Anthony Bueti, “immediately instructed our detectives to investigate who slapped these stickers on public signs,“ the Mayor said, adding that he and the Police Chief are “in constant communication as the investigation moves forward.”

“I believe that this organization is very small, a splinter group off of a splinter group, Mayor Wray reported. “Its modus operandi is exactly what we see here – slapping stickers on public property in an effort to increase visibility. But their mission is deeply un-American and vile. We need to make it clear that it is unwelcome here,” Wray stated.

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