Swastikas spray-painted on a bench on the Walnut Street Bridge, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Photo: Twitter

A New Jersey man affiliated with an antisemitic and white supremacist hate group has been sentenced to a year and one day in prison for a campaign to vandalize Jewish and Black-owned targets, which resulted in incidents at two synagogues, the US Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Richard Tobin, 20, of Brooklawn, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted that he was a member of the hate group “The Base.” He also confirmed that in September 2019, he directed other Base members online to vandalize the minority-owned properties.

Tobin explicitly related the plan to Nazi-era atrocities and nicknamed it “Kristallnacht.” It resulted in acts of vandalism against synagogues in Wisconsin and Michigan, which were defaced with hate symbols.

Another conspirator, Yousef Omar Barasneh, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection to the vandalism at the Wisconsin synagogue.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said that Tobin’s sentence “makes clear that targeting persons owning and using property simply based on their race or religion will not be tolerated.”

Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division said Tobin “actively conspired with others to commit a crime of violence, to victimize innocent people because of who they are or how they worship. That’s what crossed a line and made it the FBI’s business.”

Acting US Attorney Rachael A. Honig of the District of New Jersey said, “Justice demanded that he be held accountable for these racist and antisemitic actions, and we are proud to have joined with our colleagues in the Civil Rights Division and the Joint Terrorism Task Force in doing so in this case.”