Police are investigating what authorities say could be a hate crime in a Jewish section of Brooklyn, New York, after three cars were set ablaze and anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled across park benches.

Police said they responded to emergency calls pertaining to the case early Friday morning.

The city's Hate Crimes Task Force is "actively investigating the twisted person or people who attacked cars, benches, and a sidewalk on a block of Ocean Parkway early this morning," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.