Up on Crime Heights
Haaretz
Crime is on the increase in Crown Heights, a neighborhood of Hasidim and blacks in Brooklyn. Rather than relying on the police to protect them, Jews are turning to their own tough volunteer unit ? the Shomrim
NEW YORK – When about half a dozen police cruisers blocked the corner of Kingston Avenue and Lefferts Street in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the street was already flooded with people. Gadi Hershkop, broad-shouldered, bearded and short-tempered, stood under a traffic light and took care of business. He placed several bearded young men in dark pants and blue T-shirts around two men, who looked a bit dazed. He barked orders and updates into a walkie-talkie and two cellular phones. When he was satisfied, he conversed with Shlomi Klein, a bearded red-head who stood beside him.
Twenty minutes earlier, the two men who were surrounded by the tough guys – Nossi Slater and his father – had returned from Saturday night services at the main synagogue of the Chabad movement. When the two Hasidim dressed in black suits, skullcaps and ritual fringes walked past the corner, a black youth called the elder Slater a “stinking Jew” and pushed him. When Nossi, 25, tried to intervene, the youngster punched him hard in the face.