A business owner in New York City says a neighbor has been targeting her business over its political messaging. Hannah Lieberman, who owns the QED comedy club in Astoria, Queens, took to Instagram to tearfully describe how the man has allegedly been erasing the club’s chalk signs and posting about her online, and how she says police dismissed her complaints.
In her post, Lieberman described her club as “a public meeting space” that hosts charity events, storytelling shows and a free weekly toddler story time. She said she advertises its more than 100 monthly events with sidewalk chalk, and alleged that “all summer long, a man has been erasing my sidewalk chalk.”
According to Lieberman, the man is someone the club had a legal dispute with in 2024. She says that when other neighbors confronted him, he pointed to the club’s “We Stand With Immigrant Families” poster as his reason. She also alleges he then followed those neighbors for three blocks while calling them race traitors.
Lieberman says police told her to stop doing sidewalk chalk
Lieberman says that around the same time, he started posting about her on social media. She says police advised her to comment, “Do not mention me by name or my business again,” and told her that repeated sign erasure and further posts would give her a case for harassment.
Lieberman says engaging with him made things worse. She alleges that after her comment, he changed her name in his posts, first in a way she described as an antisemitic flourish and then into a crude sexual insult. She says she then went back to the police, pointing to the advice she had been given.
Lieberman says the response at the precinct was cold. She alleges a detective called her back and “suggested the solution to the problem is to stop doing sidewalk chalk.” When she pushed back, she says the detective told her, “Honestly, you are both just being petty.”
She says she also asked the detective about the man’s Facebook posts and was told, “That’s not anti-Semitism.” Lieberman’s account of these conversations could not be independently verified, and the NYPD’s side is not known.
According to The Law Office of Kevin T. Conway, harassment in New York is generally defined as actions taken with the express purpose to annoy or alarm another person. Under New York Penal Law Article 240, this can include repeated, unwanted contact or abusive communications. Conway noted that the law distinguishes between several levels of offenses, including aggravated harassment, which can be charged when the conduct is motivated by factors like race, religion, or ancestry.
Lieberman told her viewers she knows “this is not the biggest problem in the world,” but said she feels “so dismissed and gaslit.” She added that she hopes the detective “feels ashamed.”
Commenters were largely supportive. One questioned the detective’s reported response, writing, “Sir it’s your job,” while another urged her to file a complaint and “keep making the sidewalk art.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also commented, calling the situation “unacceptable” and saying her office would contact the precinct.
In the caption, Lieberman said she has no intention of backing down. She wrote that she will keep making sidewalk chalk art and stay vocal about her support for immigrant families, the LGBTQ community and the Palestinian community.
Published: Oct 3, 2026 10:30 am