Threat of Another Riot in Crown Heights Called Overblown

BROOKLYN, NY — As politicians from around the city gather in Crown Heights today to decry rising racial tensions there, some black and Jewish residents there say elected officials are overreacting.

The rally is the third such news conference to call for calm in response to two assaults involving black and Jewish youth that have some public officials warning of the potential for riots like those that wracked the neighborhood in 1991.

Yet most of the culprits — both black and Jewish — are too young to remember the riots, and some community leaders say they are concerned that it’s actually the grown-ups who are stoking a conflict between the groups.

The president of 77th Precinct Community Council in Crown Heights, James Caldwell, said he hasn’t witnessed the sort of tension lately that once made the neighborhood a racial tinderbox.

“I just think that we as adults can push things too far,” he said. “Sometimes kids are kids.”

The founder of the Central Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition, Taharka Robinson, said the assaults were isolated.

“Everybody’s running around going crazy as if we’re on the verge of another riot,” Mr. Robinson, who has advised the family of one of the victims, said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Moshe Goldman, 26, a part-time yeshiva student, said most people he knows don’t see the incidents as a “race issue.”

“It’s simply a crime issue,” he said. “No one’s about to erupt into rioting.”

The executive vice president of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, Rabbi Chanina Sperlin, seemed mystified at the idea that relations between blacks and Jews in Crown Heights are deteriorating.

“I don’t think we have problems with our African-American neighbors,” he said. “The problem is gangs from outside.”

Rabbi Sperlin downplayed reports of daily attacks against Jews in the neighborhood that elected officials have cited as the reason for their concern.

“What could I tell you: Last night there was no assault, the night before there was no assault,” he said, although he did acknowledge that last week there had been three confrontations.

Those incidents are what have public officials concerned, among them Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who doesn’t represent the district but who says he has met with Jewish leaders there.

“It’s really a powder keg,” Mr. Hikind said.

The series of incidents that has sparked the concern began in April, when a black college student was allegedly attacked by a group of white young people believed to be members of a chasidic safety patrol. Then, last week, a chasidic teenager was allegedly robbed by a group of black teenagers.

Also last week, a group of black youth allegedly threw rocks at a school bus carrying Jewish children, and swastikas were found painted on a Crown Heights home.

The event tomorrow, labeled a “Unity Press Conference to Ease Tensions in Crown Heights,” will be attended by as many as 15 elected officials, among them the city comptroller, William Thompson, and about a dozen state Assembly and City Council members.

Mr. Robinson suggested the press conference was both insulting and unnecessary.

“None of these people live around here,” he said. “Everybody’s stumping. It’s re-election time. They have other political aspirations.”

The director of the Crown Heights Youth Collective, Richard Green, is on the list of those attending the news conference today, but also said he was skeptical that tensions are rising.

“We have come such a long way since 1991,” Mr. Green said.

He said he would like to see more resources devoted to helping Jewish and black young people in Crown Heights get to know each other better, but he said the potential for the violence to escalate into riots just isn’t there anymore.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get back to that again,” he said.