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Aggressive Panhandler Threatens, Assaults Random Person

A Kingston Avenue panhandler, known for his aggressive and unstable behavior, was forcibly admitted to the psyche ward at Kings County Hospital after he threatened and assaulted a person who refused to give him ‘tzedakkah.’

Shomrim were called to the scene, where they found a Lubavitcher holding the beggar on the ground in front of Shain’s Shul on Kingston Avenue. They were told that the man was being held by the person he assaulted after he did not give him money.

“I was sitting in my car when he suddenly started kicking my door, when I got out he started hitting me,” the victim said.

Shomrim immediately called 911 and officers responded within moments, but could not arrest the panhandler since the victim refused to press charges. Instead, police took him to the ‘r’ building at Kings County Hospital.

This panhandler has a long history in the short time since he showed up in Crown Heights. He was arrested in the past for multiple robberies of Kingston Avenue businesses, as well as assault when he attempted to shove a person into Eastern Parkway traffic when he refused to give him money.

A law enforcement source noted that since the victim was not willing to press charges, the panhandler can probably check himself out of the psyche ward any time he likes.

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27 Comments

  • Press Charges

    As always, give the people that harm others a second chance. Not a care in the world for the next victim.

  • What a mentch!

    I would love to know who this man is. As a community we should give him an award for mentchlichkeit. He recognized that the panhandler has a mental health issue, and that he needs help. Colour me impressed!

  • Bais Meshugoyim

    Lets wait till he kills someone. And than lets charge the presses. ונהפחו

  • to #3

    it’s not mentchlichkeit, it’s short sighted feelings of Jewish sympathy.
    this pandhandler belongs in a facility that can protect him from hurting himself and others.
    the mental health laws in this country are so ridiculous that he’ll be out on the streets in no time if he wants to.
    pressing charges puts him in jail, 3 meals a day, free psych evaluations, clean beds, and if he’s lucky committal to a long term mental rehabilitation facility.
    I do chaplain work in jail, and most of these people are safer inside than outside.

  • short time?

    The article says that this panhandler came to Crown Heights a short time ago. I guess “short time” is relative but he has been hanging around Crown Heights for at least 15 years.

    • Actually

      Actually you are wrong, he first showed up here around ~4 years ago and quickly became a problem when his drug habit blossomed and he resorted to violence and robbery…

  • dml

    Nebech, remember him as a kid. he grew up in CH. Had a train accident as a teenager and has never been the same since.

  • Textbook Chosid Shoite

    If this guy doesn’t make it his FULL TIME JOB to patrol Kingston and protect the next victim from this guy’s assault or worse then the blood is on Chosid Shoite’s hands. It’s not noble to just let the guy go. What if the next victim is elderly? or otherwise unable to protect him/herself?

    • To the one asking about the family

      I don’t know the perpetrator’s name, or anything about his family.

      But as the next of kin of a developmentally disabled individual (one who is gentle as a lamb, B”H, not like this “aggressive panhandler”; if anything, people could victimize my relative [c”v], but not the other way around), the law allows people like this to walk the streets, and the family cannot lock up or put shackles on such a person — which would really be the only way to control such a person.

      The lucky ones are either the high-functioning ones like my relative, who lives semi-independently and manages on disability payments plus supplementary funds from me, OR the ones who are compliant and can live with a group home situation, where they are socialized, sheltered, and employed. But there are some — actually many — who won’t accept this lifestyle, or who are too violent to function well in this kind of lifestyle.

      R”L, ever since the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in the ’60s and ’70s — a case of OVERREACTION to some isolated cases of horrible abuse in institutions–we have the phenomenon of people like this perpetrator walking the streets and doing who-knows-what, and the families cannot control these individuals, much as you’d like for them to do. Thank you, Geraldo Rivera, who should come out and say that while exposing abuse was vital, the whole “deinstitutionalization” movement has been a big failure!

      Now, the only way to “institutionalize” a perp like this man is to imprison him for his crimes. This is what US society has come to.

      Tell me: What would you have the family of this man do???? Like I said, they can’t lock him up or shackle him. He’s obviously not the cooperative-type. So what are you saying that the family is negligent in, here?

  • Anonymous

    We know him he is not bad guy
    If the crown height community was helping them
    it wasn t apening
    Its easy to put a jew in jell
    He need help that all
    He s a kid of crown height
    That s the result

  • educate

    we are so deficient in mental health issues. It is beginning, but we are waaaay behind. We need alot of information. What are we waiting for? Nobody wins. Please everyone, get educated in mental health information to help yourself and others.

  • mendel

    i saw him trying to steel tefilin in 770 until kratz grabed the tefilin away from him.and to number 3 he defintlee shold be put in jail or a mentel house shold we wait untill he herts sombadee again

  • anon

    sad not much unity in the community then to help a fellow just all get together and slander the guy!?

    • Please walk the walk, "anon":

      The fact, that a community needs protection from a disturbed individual like this perp (R”L), is not reason to condemn the unity of our community.

      It would be a pretty tall order for our community to have built and be maintaining its own Lubavitch institution for the handful of Jewish individuals like this — i.e., violent (at least at times) AND mentally ill/brain damaged, etc, R”L. And even if we did build such a Lubavitcher place, I know of no way to compel such an individual to stay there long term, and comply with its requirements.

      SO if you really think this perp has been “slandered,” as you say, prove it! You talk the talk of wanting to “help a fellow”. What are YOU doing for the violent/disturbed individuals of this ilk in our community??? Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk!

      Do you really think Boro Park, Williamsburgh, Flatbush, Rockland County, Kiryas Yoel, etc. handle such matters any better? If so, prove it. Why are you not besmirching their “unity” as well? Sure Crown Heights is not perfect, but don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good” (in so many ways).

      Walk the talk, “anon”. Don’t just “talk the talk.”

  • Tzadik Nistar

    He’s weird, annoying , dangerous and acts strange. must be a tzadik nistar!
    ok, he’s not. neither are all the other annoying addicts out there.

  • interestingly...

    He asked us for $ right outside sweet expressions and was incredibly polite and thnkful for the dollar actually

  • annoymous

    i just saw him asking for money this afternoon, tue
    did he get out of the hospital so fast?

    /
    /

  • Still around

    He asked me to for Tzedakah today, right outside of Elzee’s, wearing the same clothes as in the pictures above.