Everyone who is responsible for clearing snow off of their sidewalks during the winter already has a grudge with snowplow drivers. There’s nothing quite like finishing clearing your driveway only to have a plow come by a few minutes later and fill it back in. But now you can find a new reason to be angry with at least two snowplow drivers in New Jersey. They were found to have deliberately thrown a huge pile of ice and slush onto two Orthodox Jewish men who were walking on a road in Lakewood, New Jersey, located in Ocean county. Thankfully, one of the two men was stupid enough to post a video of the incident to social media, including the sounds of them laughing hilariously after the attack. The worker was quickly identified and his employer terminated his employment. (NY Post)

A New Jersey snow plow worker was fired after he posted a video showing him deliberately push a huge pile of slush and snow onto two Orthodox Jewish men walking in the street, report said.

The video, which circulated on social media last week, was taken by the passenger in the snow plow as it approached two unsuspecting men wearing traditional Orthodox clothing in Lakewood in Ocean County.

As they reach the men, the driver drops the plow, directing a massive white wave of snow onto the two before the workers burst into laughter and drive away.

Fortunately, neither of the victims reported any serious injuries. This is the video posted by the passenger in the truck. Assume the usual disturbing content warning.

Some of the initial comments in response to the now-deleted video on social media were similarly offputting. One user questioned why the Jewish men were walking in the road and not off on the shoulder. (The snowstorm had turned the sides of the road into walls of ice and snow.) Others suggested that plows always throw snow and ice so “these things are bound to happen.” That’s clearly not the case here. The truck was traveling down the road without doing any plowing so the blade of the plow was up. The driver only dropped it just as they came up behind the pedestrians, which both of the men in the truck obviously found funny.

The Lakewood Police Department is investigating the incident. The Mayor of Lakewood pointed out that this was not only an antisemitic attack, but it was incredibly dangerous. Plows can throw off chunks of ice or even broken pieces of pavement. This incident could have resulted in serious injury or even death, so it wasn’t just “a joke” in any way.

Random attacks on Jewish people, particularly Orthodox Jews wearing traditional garb, are sadly all too common in New York City, but the trend seems to also be spreading across the river into New Jersey. Only a little more than a week ago, an unidentified Black man crossed a street in the Crown Heights district of New York and began beating two men in Hasidic dress, seemingly totally at random. The previous month, three teenagers randomly attacked two Jewish children, seriously injuring one of them.

The NYPD crime database has shown an alarming increase in hate crimes committed against both Jews and Asians over the past year. But isn’t it odd how little you hear about these events from major news outlets as compared to any instance where a Black or Hispanic person is injured during an encounter with the police? Apparently, not all hate crimes are created equal. And the amount of attention they receive is heavily dependent on the specific race or religion of the victim.