Taj Patterson not long after the attack.

4 Arrested in Connection with Williamsburg Assault

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Unit has arrested four members of the Williamsburg Hassidic community in connection with the beating of an African-American man last December. Additional arrests are expected.

From The Yeshiva World News:

Taj Patterson, 22, says he was headed home to Fort Greene around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 1 when he says more than a dozen Orthodox Jewish men began assaulting him on Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Paterson said he remembers the ringleader. “There was a crowd around him, cheering him on and getting him rowdy, and he would grab me and push me against the wall.”

Evelyn Keys, an MTA bus driver, came to Paterson’s rescue as she was rounding the corner of Flushing Ave. and Spencer St. when she saw the horrific attack unfold before her eyes, according to the Daily News.

“I get out of the bus and all these men were standing up straight around him,” Keys Told the Daily News. “Taj is laying down on his back. I went up to him and he was in so much pain. He says, ‘I can’t see . . . I can’t breathe.’ ”

He was rushed to Woodhull Hospital with a broken eye socket, a torn retina, blood clotting, and cuts and bruises to his knee and ankles, according to the Police report. He was “highly intoxicated, uncooperative and incoherent,” after the assault.

Many elected officials, as well as local chasidic community organizations publicly came out and condemned the attack, and police vowed to make arrests.

No further information is currently available, and no charges have been announced.

23 Comments

  • garbage

    how many jews were beaten in CH by blacks and how many arrests were made? 0

    this guy is drunk making trouble he cant remember anything from that night but they made sure to arrest 4 jews????

    thanks to the jews who voted out hynes this is what you get and there is more to come, this new guy hates jews and will do anything for the black people

    PS starks killers were still not arrested !!!!!!!!

  • avi

    The NYPD hate crimes unit is investigating the case. Same NYPD that will not define “Knockout the Jew” as a hate crime.

    • @avi

      There is no such thing. Knockout game is mainly played on Caucasians.

      #1, You make it seem like Hynes was a best friend.

  • dan

    probably drunk and drugged looking for a fight and found it. in any case, a nutcase.

  • there needs to be

    There needs to be a data study on how many crimes against Jews have been (or will be) committed in the area, as well as the same data against a non Jew. Then there needs to be corresponding data as to the consequences or actions taken for each. THEN we’ll have something to say and do. If the response is in any way less than fair, then someone(s) needs to do something. I don’t live in the area, or I would get on this, but there are plenty of intelligent people there who might be effective.

  • hmm and the blacks OF COURSE dont get arrested

    this is nuts. when someone does a hate crime against us they dont do anything (they dont even consider it a hate crime), but in this fight (which im guessing the black started) we get punished. the situation is getting out of hand!

  • CHLEAKS

    5 Hasidic Man Indicted, Charged With Gang Assault, Face Up To 25 Years In Prison

    By: VIN News Staff

    Brooklyn, NY – Kings County District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson today announced the indictment of five defendants for their participation last year in the brutal gang assault of Taj Patterson, a 23-year-old Fort Greene resident.

    The defendants, who some are associated with the Williamsburg Safety Patrol Unit, a civilian neighborhood watch group, face multiple charges for allegedly beating Patterson in the early morning hours of December 1, 2013.

    The District Attorney said that a Kings County grand jury has indicted the following defendants: Pinchas Braver, 19; Joseph Freid, 25; Mayer Herskovic, 21; Aharon Hollander, 28; and Abraham Winkler, 39, for acting in concert to commit Gang Assault in the First Degree, and other related charges.

    If convicted, the defendants each face up to 25 years in prison.

    “We simply cannot allow anyone walking on the streets of Brooklyn to be knocked to the ground, stomped and brutally beaten. Our streets must be free of such violence and everyone must adhere to the rule of law, including these defendants,” said District Attorney Ken Thompson.

    Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said, “These indictments send a clear message that acts of vigilantism are unacceptable and cannot be condoned by the NYPD. I want to thank the NYPD’s investigators as well as the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office for their exceptional work in helping to bring these individuals to justice.”

    One of the suspects was on his way back from an overseas trip, and was to be arrested upon his arrival in New York.

    The police waited until after the Passover Holiday to make the arrests.
    _________________________________

    MESIRAH?

    Was Mesirah (informing Jew on Jew) Involved?

    Absolutely!!!

    How else would the suspects be identified? Who could identify Jews if not the Jews themselves?

    Who are the Mossrim?

    More on this on by web-site, CHLEAKS.COM

  • Genevieve

    B”h

    We all need (by we I mean Jews) need to get a grip. Really and truly. I do grasp the concept that probably, most Brooklyn Orthodox are light skinned and pale and that most “Blacks” in Brooklyn are not Orthodox Jews. Nonetheless I have to say that it is a fact that there are and have always been Halachically Jewish people who were born that way and are Black! This is reality people!!!!!!!!!!!!

    No one should be beating anyone or defacing anything. Read the ten commandments lately, anyone?

  • hat_glasses_beard

    To those of you who are crying for the injustice served against the Jewish community:

    A dude was beaten. Hard.
    I don’t know the facts of the case but frankly it makes no difference. Someone was outnumbered and sourounded by a group of mature, sober adults and was beaten into the ER.

    That’s not OK.
    No matter how drunk, black, or gay a dude can be, it is NEVER ok to smash a guys face in. I don’t care who you are, Jew or no Jew, black or white, you assault someone – you go to jail and have non of my support.

    I don’t know the exact story of what happened, what he did, or how he acted. Its very easy to judge and comment from the comfort of a computer. It is possible for someone to be so drunk and so crazy that they need to be held, and sometimes they get hurt while they try to get away. I just find it hard to believe that this little guy was such a handful that a few guys had to smash him up like that. If any of the reports I’ve been hearing are true – racial slurs, running to Israel etc, F those guys. Go to jail for gang assult and hate crimes, I feel no simpathy for you. Your wife and kids they desurve better than to be stuck with you.

    Now where you CAN get upset and question the NYPD is on how they treat a revursed case. It is quite true that a large number of black on Jew assaults have been committed and nobody brought to justice. Is the NYPD using the same resources it used to catch these guys to catch people who assaulted our friends?

    Every victam deserves justice and every criminal deserves jail time. No matter their color, gender or religion.

    Stop getting heated up and blaming the NYPD every time someone from our communitys gets in trouble. Stupid people have what’s coming.

    • really?

      very nicely written if this was your father who was charged and he told you that the guy was drunk hitting him in the head would you say the same thing? or is it that you are a OTD who hates the frum people who is coming here writing these comments

      go back to your other self hating websites

    • zev

      how come i dont hear you saying the same thing when jews are beaten by blacks????

      how come when people are shot in our community and killed and its been 5 years with no arrest i dont see you pushing the NYPD to make a arrest???

      there is obviously a deeper agenda behind your comment

    • hat_glasses_beard

      I’m not OTD, I’m your classic bucher. Its in the name :)

      If this was my father? Honestly IDK, my dad is the very last person you would find involved with such a thing. Perhaps that’s where I’m coming from? Because my father would never hit someone (or discriminate, name call etc) and is a loving Shliach who preaches The Chabad view of acceptanceI have grown to hold these opinions. Who knows, makes sense to me!

      If my father, brother or friend was involved in such an incident I would absolutely feel the same way. I’d like to think I can see my fathers flaws, even if it took me until I was an adult to recognize them.

      Why don’t I yell and screem when a Jew gets hit? Who says I do not? Did you read the end part of my comment? The Jewish community deserves the full attention of the NYPD in investigating crimes against It, especially if hate crime is involved. This also applys to the Muslim, black, and Irish communities.

      Seems you take issue with people who are OTD who come here from their horrible websites to make nasty hateful comments. I can agree with you on that, I dislike people with narrow world views who are so filled with hate they can’t think independently. People such as yourself?

  • in the know

    this was certainly not a bias attack just a standard chaptsem which this perp who was drunk and broke off mirrors from cars when approached he became violent and a fight erupted between him and the shomrim this was clear self defence from the shomrim part

  • self defense?

    Well, it might have been self defense, but it seems to me that all those Shomrim could have held him down and called someone, rather than smash his face in. Only the people involved were there, obviously, so these comments are based on hypothetical circumstances. Let’ ask the Shomrim. What went on and why did you smash the man’s face? Ask yourselves hjow else you could have handled it. What do you come up with?

  • Genevieve

    B”h

    Is it certain that the man that was beaten is NOT halachically Jewish?

    Are we so secure in our existence that we can pick and chose who to include and re-write Halacha to state that Jewish is synonymous with Yiddish?

    I think not.

    • Milhouse

      There is no indication at all that he is Jewish. Therefore there is no reason to assume any such thing. There’s a very strong chazaka that he is not. But there’s no doubt that the people who were arrested ARE Jewish. So why are you so concerned for the lowlife drunk, and not for your own people?

      Even by his own account he doesn’t remember what he was doing. There is no reason to doubt that he was up to no good, and these people were protecting their neigborhood.

  • yossi & berel, CH

    Vigilante justice is NOT the way to go.That being said, we don’t know the facts
    This is a good place to call out Scott Rosenberg.The guy is trying his best to fan the flames of hate and is making up loads of outright lies and innuendo

    • Milhouse

      What’s wrong with vigilante justice? Often it’s the only kind of justice that will keep decent people safe.

  • Yasher Koach

    Assuming Mr. Patterson was drunk and acted in a law-breaking way and Shomrim came and dealt street justice:

    On one hand many folks feel that sending a vigilante lesson to crime perpetrators is the way to go in Brooklyn neighborhoods where criminals seem to get a pass by the system. On the other hand – perhaps like in this case – when folks get caught issuing street justice, folks speak negatively of the crime of gang-beating a “little” guy.

    Perhaps the unspoken lesson here is that you either hold the guy for the cops, or send a lesson but don’t get IDed/caught.

    • Milhouse

      What makes you think the guys who were identified were the same ones who did it? Remember when that burglar was caught breaking in to the kollel and was beaten? He just picked out some random chassidim to accuse.

  • Genevieve

    B”H

    I will try again, this time more politely.

    I do not take issue with what the Chassidim did; only with the assumption that Jewish=Yiddish. Perhaps I spoke too frankly in my prior comment. If so, I apologize.

    Really and truly, I am glad the Shomrim are there and do the work they do. Thank goodness, and
    Thank G-d.

  • Jacob

    I’m glad the NYPD finally caught these guys, and yes, I bet another Jew turned them all in. Smart move. Better that than have the NYPD raid the shuls on a search warrant and take the Torahs away under “civil forfeiture” laws.

    But now I’d like to know what was the motivation behind the assault. Somehow these young men thought it was okay to beat a non-Jewish person because he was black, gay, or both. I wonder who taught it to them?

    Back in the Old World, the Jews would never have dared something like this. The reprisals by the non-Jews would’ve been extreme.