NEW YORK (JTA) – The former New York police officer charged with spray-painting anti-Jewish obscenities in Brooklyn said he did it because of “cheap” Jews.

Michael Setiawan, who was arraigned last Friday on a 39-count indictment, made the assertion in court papers, according to the New York Daily News.

“When I was a deliveryman, they never gave me anything,” he said.

The graffiti appeared on cars, storefronts and a school in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park on May 3.

Setiawan, 36, retired in 2007 after two years as a cop, according to the papers. He was arraigned via video hookup from the psych ward at Bellevue Hospital, the Daily News reported.