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Police Officer putting hand-cuffs on a Shomrim member as he is arresting him.

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — At around 9:00am a Jewish resident walking to his car was jumped by a group of 5 Black juveniles who assaulted him and robbed him of his cell phone. The resident immediately called out for help and Shomrim were called.

The incident took place on Kingston Avenue and East New York Avenue, when the cries for help were heard, shoppers came out of the ‘Shuk’ and chased the teens while calling Shomrim.

Within moments a large number of Shomrim arrived on scene and managed to apprehend two of the five muggers, on Lefferts Avenue between Kingston and Brooklyn, and another one in the backyards of a few homes between East New York and Lefferts, and held them until police arrived. The situation turned south from there, and ended with the arrest of a Shomrim member and the release of all the suspects.

More in the Extended Article.

Shomrim Apprehend 3 Muggers, Police Let Them Go and Instead Arrest a Shomrim Member

Police Officer putting hand-cuffs on a Shomrim member as he is arresting him.

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — At around 9:00am a Jewish resident walking to his car was jumped by a group of 5 Black juveniles who assaulted him and robbed him of his cell phone. The resident immediately called out for help and Shomrim were called.

The incident took place on Kingston Avenue and East New York Avenue, when the cries for help were heard, shoppers came out of the ‘Shuk’ and chased the teens while calling Shomrim.

Within moments a large number of Shomrim arrived on scene and managed to apprehend two of the five muggers, on Lefferts Avenue between Kingston and Brooklyn, and another one in the backyards of a few homes between East New York and Lefferts, and held them until police arrived. The situation turned south from there, and ended with the arrest of a Shomrim member and the release of all the suspects.

More in the Extended Article.

Initially when Shomrim members apprehended the suspects, the victim identified them stating that he was positive that they were part of the group but was not sure which one of them actually grabbed his cell phone, but when police questioned the victim they put pressure on him which ‘threw him off’. Police then said that since he couldn’t be ‘absolutely sure’ they had to let them go.

But a witness came forward to police officers, a Black woman who is a school teacher, and told them that she had witnessed the entire incident and that the teenage perpetrators the police had in custody were in fact those who perpetrated the alleged crimes, but the officers wouldn’t hear her instead telling her to ‘continue about her business’ and completely ignoring her.

One resident protested the police letting them go, but was physically assaulted by one of the officers on scene, shoving, verbally assaulting and bullying him into ‘shutting up’. A Shomrim member then got excited and agitated, along with everyone else who had gathered at the scene, and called the cops on the neglect of the law they exercised, which in turn they responded with arresting him. The officer to make the arrest was the very same one who just moments earlier physically assaulted a resident who disagreed him.

One resident told CrownHeights.info “the police went and changed the focus from the incident at hand to an entirely different one” he added “I feel like they cheated us, and they don’t care about our safety”.

Another Shomrim member attempted to reason with the arresting officer, who in turn responded once again with violence, shoving him and yelling at him that he will get arrested if he didn’t shut up and leave the scene.

After a few hours the arrested Shomrim was released along with the apologies of the arresting officer and his sergeant but was issued a summonsed for ‘Disorderly Conduct’.

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70 Comments

  • Gucci

    Im Buging. Something must be done. these cops think that they can do what they ant when they want..why do we keep calling them?? catch the Pert, beet him, and let him go. thats the only way to be sure it dosent happen again..we try calling the cops,however no success.

  • Eliyahu

    There you have it folks… in living color… how a Brooklyn police officer, who is supposed to be steadfast in upholding what is fair and right and just, instead, had the utter “gayve” of not letting himself admit to Shomrim or the rightful citizen that he made a mistake. Again I say: The Police Commissioner of Brooklyn must handpick and screen these trusted officers before hiring them in quantity as if they were like “street cleaners”!!!!!

  • disgusted but not surprised

    What the Sam Hill is going on here?? Did Shomrim get the teacher’s details? She could be a witness…do I hear LAWSUIT for false arrest? I sure hope so.

    OK, Moshe Rubashkin, where RU? Still sleeping it off???

  • ch needs a chaplain in the police

    thats not good enough, an apology, the officer should be suspended

  • Me

    This is absolutely crazy! Why does this police officer deserve to be called an officer, if he is a criminal himself???

  • Start working Mr Police

    And then Mr Vega and the rest of them want to know why we feel toward these officers the way we do.

  • mendy

    Shomrim you guys rock! and as to the member who got arrested He should have much success and he has a great zchus for sticking up for his jewish brethern! also this cop should be demoted ASAP! the criminals get away and the good guys get arrested this is what it says “olam hafoch raiti”.

  • Angry

    what a joke. what are we going to do about this? Is something being done? This is outrageous! I live right there!! Who needs all the self riotous cops to be there and pretend they care when something does happen they act like jerks and don’t do anything.

    The cops are causing the problem to get worse and in my book that makes them responsible for the crimes escalating. When a group of kids at NINE IN THE MORNING can mug someone and the cops CATCH THEM and let them go why stops them from doing it ten more times!!

    SHAME ON YOU COPSzZ!!!

    I sincerely hope the Crown Heights Leadership is doing something about this incident!!

  • dallasyid

    all I can say is there has to be two sides to the story. I know I’m going out on a limb here but the whole day Purim no one got a ticket for double parking, honking the horn or you all know what I’m talking about. Unless I am mistaken they really allowed us to have a fun day w/o fearing tickets. And boy was it a mess ;) But heck we survived.
    I’d love to get the real story on this, and I mean the REAL story. If it is what it is…I admit it is really obnoxious, and this officer sud be relegated to a desk job.
    Give thanks when you should – don’t carpet rate the whole department for a few sleazballs.

  • No Justice No Peace

    That’s why thay say that “the difirence between the officers / prison guards and the inmates is that the inmates got caught”!!

  • ChaimYakkovHakohainBoardonempire

    I’m confused, the officer apologized? And he was let go? Did they then ago arrest the teens who did the crime?!?

  • Chaim

    We should coordinate a neighborhood rally, shut down Kingston for an hour or two, bus over all the kids from all the schools and from 770, have them sit dwon and block off Empire Blvd, then call the media so they can get pictures and interview the person mugged and arrested. Then try and let them arrest everyone blocking the traffic!
    If this was BoroPark or Williamsburg, every person would be there and there would be a riot!!
    The cops know that the leadership here is fractured and split. One side says one thing so the other side says the opposite. We need active leadership to organize events!! Not just people who sit there smile at the cops and nod their head and say “oy vei” And we need to get involved! The only way to get attention is when the story hits the news like when Balkony got beat up.

  • mendy

    what the … shomirim should enroll as police oficers (do the same job just whith guns and athority)

  • Crown St. resident

    How about the night when a resident called the cops for excessive noise, and was told they are extremely busy… at 5:30am the cops are overly worked… well, i guess the next best thing is to have a “friend” in the mayor seat who couldn’t care less if Brooklyn was cleansed of his own people… the criminals are a bunch of rats and they will always stay that way. yes i will view the system as corrupt so long they don’t prove me wrong.

  • ME

    MAY HASHEM PUT AN END TO THIS RIGHT NOW. LET THOSE WHO GIVE ALL YIDDEN A HARD TIME BE PUNISHED SEVERELY FROM ABOVE.

    AMEN.

  • bacure from O. T. 73---76

    the shomirm r working 4 us with miseras nefesh , G-d bless the shomrem . the deserv a I . A. D. investgation we must get together with few blacks we still have who want peace and go downtown and speak to the police comm, and the mayor .or eles start a riot and u will see change,

  • reality check

    gone are the days of the police officer you could trust and depend on.
    times have changed perhaps, or perhaps there is too much crime, and they are becoming insensitive to the constant
    surge of crime dumped on them.
    they used to be a respected group,
    now you are lucky if they are not corrupt themselves.
    some ppl call police officers, legal criminals.
    you know like it says in …wherever – if you like ….be a shochet. well, here if you like beating ppl up, become a police officer.

  • crazy

    how can the coppers get away with this? only in crown heights can something like this happen, we seriously need to do something bout this.

  • My 2 cents

    To everyone kvetvhing,
    The answer is very simple.. next time PHOTOGRAPH EVERYTHING! Zoom in and get the badges…

    Thats how they get the cops in israel that beat settlers..

    False arrest is a CRIME! he should have made a big stink and started screaming..

    If only there was a jewish al sharpton

  • joe shmo

    was there a video of this that could change alot if the story goes as you put it

  • do something

    Next time this happens, we should forget about the cops and do something.
    Like give the prep the time of his life, and then he wont do it anymore, and if he doesn’t do it anymore then who WILL need helpless cops to do nothing.
    Anyways we should not know about such things anymore and be I Eretz Yisroel with MOSHIACH NOW!!!

  • cb

    i hate these things because the cops are just going to walk away and they can get away with this!
    They really shouldn’t!
    they are the ones who should be arrested!
    And just watch,nobody is going to do anything about this!
    Now all the muggers will see that they can just be let go freely and get away with it so they’ll think why cant we do this again?!
    we dont know,in chas visholom a another mugging crime is going to happen again,and they’ll be just let go freely!
    what is this world comming to?

  • shimy

    plain “ole” news.every day the same story!!! copsjust do you’r job!
    (right)!!!!!!!!!!!

  • aisav sone lyakov

    mr Vega
    YOU have a very big problem.

    someone is sending under your command total idiots and even tough you are a nice guy your oficers are real stupid and guess what it is al documented and

    you are the only one that will pay for the total idiots misconduct.

  • A concerned jew

    get the witnesses info in writing including their names contact info & call the media, The Mayor’s & The P/c’s office etc. If you want to have an effect make a big public stink!!!

  • Reader

    To:dallasyid:
    yeah lots of guys didnt get tickets in the afternoon but lot of guys did in the first half of the day!

  • An Idea

    If the Shomrim members (and anyone else for that matter) would carry with them a small video camera (or capture footage with a Digital Camera) and post it online every time something happens; that’ll be a good way to publicize it.

    It’s also good for evidence!

  • C.

    To victim, witnesses, and Shomrim members:
    1) Make a report/ File complaint for abuse and what they did wrong
    2) Sue!
    If you fight back they’ll behave themselves next time. (Like with the Arabs, Yma”sh, who are more fearful when you fight back for your land. They were very fearful and respectful of the soldiers when my grandfather was in the army)

  • This is Mad

    I dont understand why we dont protest and get this stuff on the news like they would do in boro park. this is completly ridcoulous.

  • D. Chossid

    An outrage. There should be protests outside the police headquarters. If this was Boro Park, Williamsburg or New Square, heads would be rolling inside police headquarters right now.

  • MoshiachNow!

    dallis yid has a valid point. if guilty, this officer needs to be reassigned and an investigation must be underway.

    one sleazball, doesn’t mean all of them are.

  • dandavid

    Police police please please stop right now with your stupid things!!!
    We don’t need, not your sweetnes and not your bite…
    You all, get the bad spot in hell!!!

  • Chaim

    Call The New York City Council Member who represents Crown Heights. This incident took place in Matthew Eugene’s district. Letitia James represents Crown Heights north of Empire Blvd. Call both of them.

    Letitia James 718-260-9191
    Matthew Eugene 718-287-8762

    And ask Chanina to talk to the Mayor, Bloomberg, and Police Commissioner Kelley. They both regard Chanina as the voice of all Lubavitch!

  • ceo

    the police do this to us because they know that we won’t do what others would. They push us around because they’re afraid to push other groups around, they know that we’re not violent by nature and they would like to do it to others but it would never be allowed. It seems that to do it to Jews is ok by them.

  • Use Mama Loshen, Please!

    B“H

    Dear ”bacure from O. T. 73—76“ (sic.*):

    I think it would be better to read your comments in either Yiddish or Hebrew in the future, as, unfortunately, your written English is just about impossible to understand. I’m sure that ”O. T.“ gave you a good fluency in these other two languages during ”73—76“.

    PS — Webby, it would be a kiddush Hashem if you would clean up the spelling,grammar,and punctuation on these embarrassing ones before printing them.

    * — ”sic.“ isn’t a misspelling of ”sick;“ it’s a standard Latin abbreviation (meaning ”Thus; so”) used when something is written in a non-standard way, and is being quoted the exact way it was written, on purpose.

  • Shnitzel and lots of duck sauce :)

    Thats retarded! Why did they let them go if they were guilty and how did they find the shomrim guilty? I mean why? Are they afraid they’re job is being taken over! This is nuts! Police are here to save not to rescue the criminals and arrest the saviors! stupidity!

  • this is nuts!

    i can’t believe this is happening! shomrim help the police do much, and this is what happens??!!!

  • Common Sense

    Are you guys all clueless? It is not Vega who is the problem, it is the Mayor.

    The Mayor is the one letting these acts happen and he is the one who should be blamed.

  • dallasyid

    IF you got tickets in the AM I’m sorry as I did not hear of any given out.

    Regardless, we must be vigilant to the few bad apples. Trust me most of the officers are really okay and just doing there job like you and I. A few, the rotten ones need to be videod, taped or photographed. Those done harm to should take the case to lawyers (or yedidim mevinim..) and do what a smart person would.
    Don’t give CH a bad name with smearing the whole force.

  • mendy

    71 is goota take a long look at themselves!, Shomrim is here to help you and they do catch perps and thats the only way of saying thank you by arresting a member ! shame on you 71 precint!!!!! Apology is not good enough, although the apology should be issiued but further action should be taken like demoting this officer who pushes a member of the community away, and doesnt excersise the law and when gets called out for it by a shomrim member he arrests the member! who does this cop think he is he should be arrested for letting three assailaints flee especially when there was evidence by jews and even a black woman etc.. this should not go under the rug I wanna see this officer demoted and embarresed!

  • I WAS THERE!! SEEING IS BELIVING!!!

    I was there and the officer was afraid of his Sergeant who came after he let the perps go, so he,this same officer rivera diverted the attention by arresting the frustrating but great Shomrim member. I also saw the witness come forward show her teachers ID and said “I saw the whole thing” not one attempt was made to get her statement into evidence. I think the 71st pct should go back to police training. What CHUTZPA!! My message to the 71pct, we live here, when you go home after you shift, we still live here. If you don’t want to do your job stay home and we will do it for you. It is time for us to rise and take back our street “CROWN HEIGHTS” our neighberhood. Low life’s like rivera who chose to be judge and jury on the scene, pick a Pct next to your house so the victims would be your family. When a Jew is robed it’s no big deal, they have money. When a Jew stands up for himself, lock him up!! Shut him up!! Guess what, like the Shomrim member said “ In 1945 I would have gotten a bullet for this, if all I am getting is a summons then keep on righting them because I will never allow a Nazi to shove or belittle another JEW” NEVER AGAIN!!!! GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

  • Throwing Stones in Glass Houses

    Use Mama Loshen:

    Thanks for the Latin lesson.
    I know you have good intentions and all, but I counted several errors of punctuation and grammar in your post.
    No one’s perfect. I’m assuming you tried to be perfect in your post, given how bad it would look if you yourself made errors while criticizing others for theirs. So I’ll assume genuine ignorance on your part. You’re not perfect either. Give others a break.

  • Thankfull resident

    It’s obvious that the police does not like Moshe Rubashkin & the Shomrim. I really don’t know why? They both do a tremendous job for the community.

    Please put pictures and video of the seudat Purim that Moshe did for us this year BH was and excellent event.

    Thank you Moshe.

  • Mordechai

    We have to unleash Chanina to become the Jewish Al Sharpton. Lead marches, rallies, press conferences, and other protests every day until Bloomberg, Kelly, Fox, and Vega make meaningful changes.

    The Rev. Al gets results for his flock. So should Chanina. As they say, “”We jes ain’t got nobody else.”

  • 123

    for arguments sake lets just say the shomrim guy “deserved” to be taken in (which definitely wasnt the case) why do they just let the 2 muggers go?????????

  • to the member who got arrested

    When the Frierdige Rebbe was arrested and jailed as a child (then it was the Frierdige Rebbe who pushed the policeman), his father (the Rebbe Rashab) gave him extra allowance and told him that it is a great zechus to be arrested for defending the honor of another Yid.

    Keep up the great work!

  • UPSET RESIDENT

    In my oppinion the arrest, and all the small things everyone says are not the end of the world.

    this is the real problem

    VEGA… Street Officers…

    YOU JUST LET A GROUP OF TEENS KNOW…
    COME TO CROWN HEIGHTS AND MUG PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU WILL GET AWAY WITH IT…

    Lets look at this from both sides…
    if they DID DO IT… oh G-D you can sure understand how bad this message is to these kids…

    Now if they did not do it.
    what is so wrong with taking in a few suspishos teens and sending a clear message if you walk through these streets l0oking suspisios you get arested… so they just wont hang out hear no big deal.

    just like they arested a shomrim member and let him go they can do the same by them erest them and let them go later when they determin they did anything wrong and …

  • INSPECTER VEGA

    HEY JEWISH COMUNITY!

    IF YOU DONT LIKE WHAT HAPPANED JUST TAKE THE LAW INTO YOUR OWN HANDS.

    NEXT TIME SOME ONE MUGS YOU, BEET HIM SILLY. BECAUSE WE AINT GONA CARE…

    Vega, that is the message you and your officers send us after such a story

  • Sounds Familiar

    I remember when I was a witness to a break in in my own home, just one year ago. Police were called first by a neighbor who heard my screams, and then Shomrim. I was shocked–and frightened and confused–by the way the police officers responded to the Shomrim members. Cursing obscenely at them, and shouting: Leave! Leave! (expletives) Kids! You want to get shot at? You want to get arrested? Get outta here!!!!

    I assumed they were concerned for the safety of the members (as the perp could have still been in the house, which they were checking). They explained this to me afterwards, too.
    While I appreciated their concern, there was a huge amount of unmistakable anger and hatred pouring forth in the way the officer spoke to the members (who slunk away, embarrassed).
    Perhaps the police feel the Shomrim are getting in their way–or, more likely, feel threatened by them. Either way, it’s sad to see such a lack of respect and cooperation with a civilian patrol — which, after all, is a common concept in neighborhoods throughout America. This should not be tolerated.

  • fromCH

    beating these guys helps nothing, saying that you should beat them and not call the cops, makes you no better than they…..

    do you want someone to beat your lights out when you do something wrong?

    we all know where that goes, it comes down to making the cops work for you, take badge numbers, have someone video tape every time you interact with the NYPD from a distance where they wont see the cam…. you do this right, you have the system work as it should, work for you when you need it to

    have a look at this guy, he catches brownies breaking the laws their paid to enforce…. maybe you should hire him
    http://www.youtube.com/watc…

  • awacs

    “what does ‘Disorderly Conduct’ mean???”

    whatever a police officer wants it to mean. :-(

  • BigBen

    Apology not accepted. This is ridiculous. The stupid cop needs to be demoted and transferred out of this precinct.
    All is not lost, you can still gather evidence and all witnesses and prosecute or sue.
    The next 71st Police meeting is this Thursday March 27, at 7:45pm, on Empire Blvd diagonally accross the precinct. Please come if you really care and let’s demand together that this must stop. Vega must discipline those cops who are “working” here.

  • shimshon hagibor

    well well the cops leave them no choice so next time the shomrim catch a mugger they will have to avoid calling the police and give him Arab style justice(cut off his hand)maybe that way we can stop the crime in our neighborhood

  • Just my 2 cents

    I have a few words for whoever reads this:

    “A government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services such as police protection to any particular individual citizen.”

    http://psacake.com/dial_911…

    The cops are not responsible for protecting you.. get a life people.

  • Business as Usual

    At what point are the residents of CH going to get up and go to the PCT, City Hall en mass and say “This is not acceptable!” Everyone seems to think that someone else will do it. Put down your books, your cell phone, and realize that this is the most important thing you can do. Don’t wait untill something happens to yu and then say “oh why doesn’t someone do something about this.
    Do it now do it tonight, get everyone you know to do it, get every Jew in the city to go. Incidents like this are not isolated, they happen al over the city all the time. ”The NYPD is out of control and it’s going to get worse before it gets better..” that’s what a veteran senior officer of the 70th PCT said to me.
    If you reading this don’t do something, who will?

  • To: Throwing stones . . . .

    B“H

    Are you actually offended that someone took the trouble to comment on the problematic posting above, by ”bacure from O. T. 73—76???“

    To which errors in my prior post are you referring? I honestly do not see any grammar or punctuation errors there.
    (However, there are various opinions on the ways to use some punctuation marks).
    I did see one slight spacing error, for which I apologize to you.

    If you can improve on my post, by all means, do so! I’m always happy to learn, and can certainly take whatever advice you have to offer.

    Love,
    ”Use Mama Loshen, Please!“

    PS — As for explaining ”sic.“, I didn’t want for anyone to think I was referring to ”bacure“ as someone who was ”sick”. But I’m glad you appreciate the information.

  • LET-S LEARN SOME LAW

    I see it necessary to publicize the following in the hope that Shomrim members will read it. If you know a Shomrim member please advise them of this comment.

    NY Law provides in its Criminal Procedure code (copied directly of the NY Senate website):

    § 140.30 Arrest without a warrant; by any person; when and where
    authorized.

    1. Subject to the provisions of subdivision two, any person may
    arrest another person (a) for a felony when the latter has in fact
    committed such felony, and (b) for any offense when the latter has in
    fact committed such offense in his presence.
    2. Such an arrest, if for a felony, may be made anywhere in the
    state. If the arrest is for an offense other than a felony, it may be
    made only in the county in which such offense was committed.

    This is a phenomenon known as citizen’s arrest; its’ laws vary from state to state(most notably NC makes no provision for it at all), so don’t assume this applies to all of you on the web reading this!

    Practically this means that if a Shomrim member (or anyone else for that matter) SEES PERSONALLY someone committing a MISDEMEANOR(writing a bad check) or receives EVIDENCE EVEN THOUGH HE DID NOT WITNESS IT that someone committed a FELONY – SUCH AS IN YESTERDAYS INCIDENT, WHERE ROBBERY, A FELONY, WAS COMMITTED and witnesses existed to confirm the felony which occurred and identified the perps – Shomrim THEMSELVES have the legal right to ARREST AND DETAIN the perps, drive them down Flatbush Avenue to Brooklyn Court and have them presented to a Magistrate, without the need to involve the Police in the process.

    (This detail would have to be double-checked with a legal expert on the matter, but I am pretty sure there are no provisions on the procedure of citizen’s arrest, so it would even be legal for Shomrim members to handcuff the perps while transporting them; on the other hand they are probably also required to read the arrestee his rights).

    A handy quick list of what is considered a Felony in NY can be found at the following link:
    http://www.storobin.com/pen…

    I think with this knowledge we can flip the coin; let Vega come crawling to Shomrim on all fours to ask them to leave all arrests to the police (they need them if they want to get promotions for good statistics).

    Another thing which the CHJCC or Shomrim should implement is getting licenses to carry firearms (to obtain a license to CARRY in NYC, on must prove that “proper cause” exists for issuance of such license, the discretion being left to the NYC Police Commissioner to determine what is a proper cause). Although it is not very likely to be approved, I think it is definitely worth a try.

    Overall I think the solution to yesterdays problem would be PARTLY remedied by our community providing Shomrim with access to proper legal counsel. Doing so would provide a double advantage; A) It would insure proper prosecution of those who violate the rights of Shomrim (as the police probably did yesterday), and B) It would make Shomrim more effective by making them aware of their full powers as evidenced above.