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African-American Saves Jewish Teen from Assault

A 15-year-old Yeshiva student was mugged and assaulted on his way home from school today. He was rescued by a Good Samaritan who boldly intervened. Sadly, the NYPD as usual failed to demonstrate professionalism when handling the case.

The incident occurred at around 4:00 PM today. A student in Darchei Menachem, who lives in Flatbush and commutes daily by public transit, was on his way to the bus stop on New York Ave. and Rutland St. when he was jumped by three African-American teenagers, who grabbed his phone and began to beat him. The boy was helpless as he received blow after blow, one of which left him with a large welt around his eye.

A heavyset African-American who happened to be passing by intervened and stopped the assault. He retrieved the boy’s phone, chased away the assailants and escorted the boy back to the school.

A teacher called Shomrim and 911. Shomrim arrived promptly and, upon inspection of his injuries, decided to call Hatzolah to have a look at his eye. The police never showed up.

Outside, a Shomrim member flagged down an NYPD cruiser, which seemed to be in no rush anywhere. The officers inside said they were unaware of the mugging, and thanked Shomrim for letting them know. They entered the building and joined the school faculty Shomrim and Hatzolah in their assessment of the crime.

Suddenly, two policemen from the 71st Precinct Community Affairs unit walked in and, while everyone else was acting courteous and professional, decided that Shomrim had no right to be involved in the investigation and had to leave the building. Despite the fact that they had been the ones to answer the call – which the NYPD never did – they did not make a fuss and quietly left the “professionals” to handle the situation.

A short while later a Shomrim member went back inside the school to talk with an administrator about a completely unrelated issue. The CA officers were just then on their way out of the building when they saw him come inside. One of them, officer Silverstein, said to him “didn’t I tell you to get out of here!?” Before the Shomrim member had a chance to say anything, the other officer, Sgt. Kelley, yelled “get the [expletive] outta here!”

Despite the fact that the regular officers were grateful to the Shomrim for their assistance in responding to the crime, and despite the fact that the purpose of the Community Affairs department is to foster a positive relationship with the Crown Heights Jewish Community, these officers took it upon themselves to antagonize the volunteers and strain the relationship between the Department and the community.

One Shomrim coordinator told Crownheights.info that this is an ongoing issue with several officers at the 71st precinct. “Instead of using Shomrim as the valuable resource it is in fighting crime, they utilize their position to undermine and malign the volunteer group for political purposes and personal vendettas, at expense of the Community and the fight against crime,” he said.

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28 Comments

  • yaacov

    I think the African Ameerican fellow who saved the be publicly thanked and honored. He is a mensch and a hero

  • content of charactor

    Great story, but it would have been nice for the headline to describe the individual using the content of his charactor “good samariten” as apposed to the color of his skin “african-american” (he probably has no connection to africa)

  • agree

    they dont only do it to shomrim they do it to the residents of CH, we need them removed ASAP

  • Achrayut

    Habitui “Good Samaritan” nilkach mbrit hachadasha vhu neged am yisrael. Yihudi lo mishtameish b’bitui zeh

    Im yesh lachem asar yehudi vK”sk Chabad tzrichim ldaat devarim kaeilu

  • Milhouse

    Who are the police to order people out of private property in the first place?

  • liat

    The concept of “good samaritan” is actually anti-semitic. It bothers me a lot when I see it used by Jews.

  • Sababa

    If the Haredi don’t like the police they should go live on an Island and rule themselves, bunch of racist vigilantes. YOU RE NOT THE POLICE even though you think you are. Where in Israel do the Haredi have their own security force? Bunch of whiners

  • DaasTorah

    Here is a solution to the problem: get out of New York City! We are an agrarian, tribal people. We should be tilling the land and raising sheep, not packed into the cities!

  • NYPD is a disgrace

    IT is illegal for the NYPD to do what they did. Darkei Menachem is private property and thus if they welcomed shomrim in, NYPD has no right to evict them from the property without an order from a judge. The only excuse they would have to send them flying if there was a serious crime scene, yet A) it was a relatively benign crime (not a murder investigation) B) THE CRIME SCENE WAS ON THE STREET! Not in Darkei menachem. I think it’s time that the shomrim sue the NYPD for all they’ve got for their years of harassment and this latest incident should be the “make B’patish”.

  • the aha moment

    We should find this African American and personally thank him

    we need leadership ? where is the leadership? why done our leaders make a big deal of this.
    apathy is the answer

  • Levi

    One wonders if the young low-life criminals had already stolen the boy’s phone, why did they feel the need to beat him mercilessly? This tells me the motive was more than mere theft.

    To number #3, ordinarily I would agree with you, but I think in this case, it is important to point out that the kind gentleman (who saved the boy) is African-American, considering that, unfourtunately, we often hear stories of black youth beating and robbing people, it is important to reiterate and re-emphasize that there are good and bad people in every race and nationality, and people should never be judged based on race or ethnicity.

  • The African

    The world changed
    The African are nice
    And the Jews fight the Jews
    Shame on you richi

  • SM

    As mentioned above, the parable to which the phrase above refers is from the ‘ new testement’. The story is told by the man whose name I will avoid and is anti semetic in that a Cohen and Levi ignore a man being beaten and it is only the non-jew who helps. It would be best to change the wording.

  • Serious

    Summer is here. We need protection. We got to get the comunication kinks out now. There needs to be a meeting ASAP. This kid is very lucky to get courageous help when he did. May he have a compleete speedy recovery. An undercover officer should be watching that school. The kids must be traumatized. Train kids to be aware and ready to call for help fast. (Also maybe Check mizuzos).
    That Hero should be recognized. Shomrim should also be recognized. How is it that Shomrim gets there way before police every time?

  • I Am Shomrim

    1. I feel really bad for the victim (it could easily have been me or you), I hope he’s ok and will get the proper help.

    2. Shomrim members are volunteers. Shomrim volunteers are our neighbors, friends, brothers, cousins, brother-in-laws, uncles etc…etc.. they are also regular working people with their own families. They all go out of their way to assist their fellow neighbors when called upon without hesitation.

    An attack on Shomrim volunteer is an attack on every single resident of the Crown Heights Jewish community.

    If I, a family member or friend, calls Shomrim to assist me, then I expect my wises to be respected by the police. Don’t make me a victim twice.

    Shomrim volunteers, like any other citizen have the right to be wherever any other citizen has the right to be. Especially if it was they who were called to the scene of a crime by the victim or family or friend of a victim.

    There is absolutely no reason why the police would act with such animosity and hate towards our Shomrim volunteers, unless of course they were filled with hate and propaganda by the self appointed “leaders”* of our community**.

    * Self Appointed Leaders: The unelected members of the Crown Heights Community Council, inc. For example: Chanina Sperlin, Yaakov Spritzer, Elie Poltorak, Paul Huebner and gang.

    ** When we the residents of the Crown Heights Jewish Community need assistance (as a result of being a victim of a crime or for any other reason) we don’t call these self appointed leaders, we call Shomrim. Shomrim volunteers are here for us, Shomrim volunteers support us.

    3. The 71st precinct needs a complete and full clean up. It’s not enough that we have a new inspector/commander. All of Simonettis henchman must go with him. The old guard has been poisoned with hate and propaganda. There is no return for these officers, they can not serve all residents of our community with fairness. The realty is that they are now bias towards many as a result of the hate and propaganda they were feed these past four years.

  • take this up all the way to the top

    u MUST take this story up to KELLY get DOV HAIKIND invalved. look the blaks make a fuss in FL and it got them somewhere shomrim must do the same. i know wer out numberd and u dont have the suport from CHJCC but who cares

  • awacs

    “6. Milhouse wrote:

    Who are the police to order people out of private property in the first place?”

    Uh, people with guns.

    Ever try arguing with angry people with weapons? Not the smartest move.

  • dev

    Interesting how a report on a hate blog that just go posted today – sings the praises of this silverstein cop, I guess the hateblog is happy that silverstein is harrasing shomrim and jews?

  • compstat fraud

    they did not respond,because they were hoping that by the time you got there you would be gone, then they would tell the dispacter that you the complainant was gone on arrival, this is a tactic used, so they could keep the 71st precint from recording a robbery and assualt, this is done to keep crime stats down, research officer adrain schoolcraft and April 18, 2012 5:22pm