Police Increase Presence in Response to Attacks

An increased presence of police around Crown Heights led many residents to question whether it is in response to a threat to the Jewish community or the neighborhood. The 71st Precinct’s Community Affairs Unit released a statement of reassurance that this is not the case.

Last week on Tuesday evening, November 3rd, a Hatzalah volunteer was stabbed on Eastern Parkway while out for a jog. This came just a day before the opening of the International Kinus Hashluchim, and police responded with many additional police officers and vehicles for increased presence.

“There is no threat or Intel on the Jewish community at this time. We are just being extra visible after the [Eastern Parkway] stabbing to reassure the community is safe” the statement read.

The increased presence can be seen around neighborhood synagogues and schools, where marked patrol vehicles are stationed with the emergency lights flashing.

Two additional incidents increased the sense of fear when a Jewish man was punched while on his way to Shul on Wednesday, the morning following the stabbing. The perpetrator was apprehended at the scene, and police said that it had no connection to the stabbing the night before.

Another stabbing occurred on Empire Boulevard on Thursday evening. Police believe that the victim knew his assailant and the attack followed a dispute.

There is no word on how long this additional police presence will continue in the neighborhood.

2 Comments

  • Great

    Why stop it. Let them continue indefinitely so id doesn’t happen not stop and start again next time something like this happens

  • Locked and Loaded Lubavitcher

    I have no definitive proof one way or another as to whether there is a direct or proxy connection to the threat that was interdicted yesterday by the FBI in Richmond Virginia. In which three neo-nazi/white supremacists were arrested for plotting to “attack Synagogues and black Churches” and stockpillong weaponry for a coming “race war”. A “glovelike” fit in describing the religious demographics found in Crown Heights.
    One thing that I can tell you with almost complete certainty, is that your chances of getting the truth out of a municipal level law enforcement agency regarding the antecedent that precipitated an increase in the threat level and law enforcement presence in a particular area, are less than slim to none.

    I recall a certain incident a number of years ago when I was certain that something was “up” just by the sudden influx of uniformed and plainclothes law enforcement personelle into the neighborhood. When I approached a patrol Sergeant and asked him what was happening, he assured me that there was “nothing happening at all” and that everything was “completely normal”. Needless to say that when I happened to encounter the SAC from the local FBI field office, whom I happened to know personally, sitting in an unmarked Suburban a block and a half away two minutes later, I received a VERY different response! One of the primary functions of local law enforcement in an elevated threat scenario is to keep the general public – whom, as far as they are concerned (and for the most part, unfortunately in today’s day and age, they are right about) don’t have the mental, emotional and psychological fortitude and wherewithal to deal with the realities of life, calm.
    You need to become your own threat detection system and situation barometer.
    Sometimes though, in all honesty, law enforcement really don’t know (not that that means that there is no threat present). Just remember, there really wasn’t an elevated threat detected as of 8:45 AM on September 11th, 2001. We all know what happened within a minute thereafter…….. Stay safe.