Park Gates Welded Shut, The Jewish Community Fights Back

by CrownHeights.info

A war of words became a war of action Monday morning after NYC employees were seen welding closed the gates to parks in the Williamsburg and Boro Park areas.

The faceoff had been brewing for days as city officials had been enforcing a ban playgrounds by repeatedly kicking groups of Chassidic children out of local parks, while allowing of hundreds of protesters to roam the streets.

Earlier, activist Heshy Tischler had organized a “protest” of Williamsburg children, riding their bikes and scooters to protest the parks closure, pointing out the double standard at play. While the city appeared happy to kick children out of the local parks, pictures of the mass protests without police intervention and other parks in use appeared across social media platforms.

After kicking the children out of the parks again on Sunday, the city decided to weld the gates to the parks shut, but only those frequented by the Orthodox children.

“Yes. This is actually happening now!” Wrote Joel Fischer on twitter. “Bill de Blasio is Welding the gates at the biggest park in the Jewish community, (Borough Park, Brooklyn) So your child shouldn’t try to break in. While Hundreds of thousands of people gathered yesterday at Brooklyn Museum.”

The expected uproar escalated after individuals cut the welded gate open, allowing the children to enter the parks.

When the parks authorities arrived, Heshy Tischler faced them down, ultimately allowing the children to remain in the park.

Senator Simcha Felder also chimed in tweeting against the parks closure.

“We’ve asked nicely and waited patiently. We’ve made every logical argument. The people have spoken and they’re running out of patience. If @nycmayor won’t open ALL our playgrounds @SEichenstein @KalmanYeger
and I will cut the locks open ourselves.”

For today the showdown is over. Tomorrow remains to be seen.