NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Eric Adams on Saturday paid a visit to a Queens neighborhood that was hit by vandals the night before. 

Five men were arrested for allegedly smashing a windshield, tearing down American flags, overturning garbage cans and jumping on and spray-painting cars in Middle Village Friday night, police said. 

On Saturday, Adams spoke with disgust as he viewed the profanity that was painted onto Middle Village resident Rick Ludwig's damaged SUV. The SUV had been parked in Ludwig's driveway. 

“This is a disabled vehicle,” Adams said. “This is what they do! They destroyed this person’s car."

Adams and other local elected officials said the vandalism was not directly related to Kyle Rittenhouse being found not guilty on all charges at his trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Instead, they said the five men took advantage of the divisive climate surrounding that case and acted out.

"You have people covering their faces, using profanity, hurling ethnic slurs,” Adams said. “They were attempting to create violence between our communities."

Ludwig, a 75-year-old retired firefighter and Air Force veteran, said whatever the motive, he was annoyed that he would need to foot the bill to repair his car in order to meet his deductible.

“It doesn’t make me sick,” he said. “[But] it makes me angry that people would do something like that. What’s the reason?”

The five men who were arrested ranged in age from 22 to 38, the NYPD said. Four of them were from Brooklyn and one was from New Jersey, according to police. They face charges including rioting and unlawful assembly.