A Brooklyn teenager took a wild ride on a Crown Heights sidewalk in a stolen car, then fled into a crowded church — prompting community leaders to slam the cops who chased him into the house of worship.
Furor as Joy-Ride Teen is Arrested in Church
A Brooklyn teenager took a wild ride on a Crown Heights sidewalk in a stolen car, then fled into a crowded church — prompting community leaders to slam the cops who chased him into the house of worship.
“Police conducted themselves like they were raiding a crackhouse,” Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries said yesterday at the Shiloh Seventh Day Adventist Church, on Eastern Parkway. “This type of behavior would have never occurred at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”
Cops spotted Kendel Jones, 18, going the wrong way on Lincoln Place and mounting the sidewalk Friday evening. With more than a dozen cops in pursuit, Jones ran to the church a block away.
He was arrested inside.
Jeffries and others ripped the idea of chasing a suspect into a church — especially on a Friday, the Seventh Day Adventist Sabbath.
The church, they said, had more than 100 worshippers, including children, inside at the time.
But NYPD spokesman Paul Browne insisted that the officers “acted appropriately in apprehending as quickly as possible an individual endangering the public.”
antimesira
I fail to understand what the police did wrong.
CN
They should blame Kendel Jones for running there to hide, not the police for catching him.
sam
sounds like the Arabs if Israel G-d forbis enters a church to arreest a killer – oy vey!!!!!! thw whole world turns over
cops definately did the right thing
thanks for getting a dangerous man off the street
MaDDinBklyn
I fail to understand how the NYPD foiled the times square bomber.
Milhouse
I don’t know what they expected the police to do. If a suspect ran into a private home, or into a cinema or a restaurant or supermarket, do you think the police would hesitate to follow? So why should a church (or a shul) be any different? Are they supposed to say “oh well, we can’t set foot in a church so we’ll just let him go”?
And what about the safety of the people inside? The police have just seen a potentially dangerous criminal run into a crowded building; are they supposed to let him harm the people because they can’t set foot in the building for some reason?
No sanctuary to armed, drugged up thugs!
To Hakeem Jeffries:
If the police wouldn’t do the same at S. Patrick’s Cathedral, THAT is the problem, not what happened at your church.
NO house of worship should be a place the police cannot enter WHEN PURSUING A SUSPECT.
Also, you use the term “raiding a crackhouse”. I was under the impression that a raid of a crackhouse might involve some kind of police ransacking-like behavior, in search of hidden evidence. I don’t think that’s what the police did when they came into your church.
Do you really want criminals using your (or any) house of worship as a place to hole-up in, immune to police action? If so, I guess you’d better get ready to encounter armed, drugged-up thugs at any moment during your normal church activities. Is that what you really want your house of worship to be like????
tee ess
right. really dumb position for an elected official to have.
like if he ran over jeffries mom while mounting the sidewalk, or stole jeffries car, i think the tune would be different.
or, say, if a black child was hit by a white driver who flees the scene into a synagogue the cops should wait outside….
you steal a car, run the sidewalk, run from police, there’s no where that is holy for you.
Not so indifferent
Why post a video of the inside of a church?! like the Rebbe said regarding television (in our case internet) “we bring the church into our homes” shame on us
so what
the deniers have sanctuary lack faith in divine retribution
“you to were foriegners in a foriegn land”
SCHIVAUGHN
AND DA SAD THING ABOUT IT IS THAT I KNO DA BOY I WENT TU SKOOL WIT HIM SMH