A Lubavitcher spokesman charged today that police action taken yesterday over alleged damage to a car in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn constituted an anti-Semitic assault on a crowd of Hasidic Jews who, he alleged, were indiscriminately beaten by police with billy clubs. According to Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the car was stopped because it had been driven “recklessly” on a street that is blocked to through traffic during certains hours of Saturday to protect overflow crowds attending synagogue services at the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva.
Three persons were booked at a nearby police station after a melee in which, according to police, one officer, Ronald Brown, was beaten unconscious, and 14 other police officers were injured by a crowd of several hundred Hasidic Jews. Brown and two others were hospitalized, police reported. The three arrested were identified as Frederick Coren, 29, and Yossi Duchman, 17, who were released on their own recognizance, and Howard Scheiner, 34, who was released on $2500 bail. All are to appear in court tomorrow.
Scheiner was charged with second degree assault, robbery, possession of a dangerous weapon (a blackjack), criminal mischief, resisting arrest, inciting to riot, disorderly conduct and obstructing justice. Coren was charged with third degree assault and disorderly conduct. Duchman was charged with criminal mischief.
Rabbi Krinsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that members of the Hasidic community planned to bring charges against individual police officers before the police review board. He said it was “totally untrue” that any policeman was beaten unconscious or otherwise injured. He claimed that the Hasidic Jews were “completely defenseless” against the alleged assault because as Orthodox Jews they are forbidden to carrying anything on the Sabbath.
CHARGE POLICE USED FORCE
The incident flared at about one pm when two cars driven along the blocked-off street were stopped by a crowd. Some of them kicked and pounded on the doors and windows. One car was driven by Dr. Rufus Nichols who lives on the block, and the other by a patient of Dr. Nichols whom he was reportedly escorting from the block. Both Dr. Nichols and his patient are black.
One of the drivers complained to two policemen stationed at the end of the block that his car was damaged and pointed to three youths who allegedly caused the damage. Police said the youths fled and that the policemen who followed them into an alley were set upon and pummeled by Hasidim.
According to Rabbi Krinsky, the youths did not flee or resist arrest but refused to enter a police care because of Sabbath, A large crowd gathered, according to Krinsky, and at that point the policemen sent out a 1013 (distress call) which, Rabbi Krinsky claimed, brought about 40 police cars and at least 100 police to the scene within minutes. He alleged that the police tore into the crowd with billy clubs, shoved people against walls and beat them while shouting curses and anti-Semitic epithets. Rabbi Krinsky claimed that one policeman entered a women’s synagogue with revolver in hand.
Rabbi Krinsky conceded that he was an eye-witness to only part of the incident. He said his wife had witnessed the cars being driven recklessly through the street. Rabbi Krinsky told the JTA that four young children have been hit by cars on the same block on four separate Saturdays during the past year. The most recent accident occurred May 26, he said. The block is a feeder road on the south side of Eastern Parkway between Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues, a neighborhood inhabited mainly by Hasidic Jews and blacks. The 71st precinct which covers the area was unable to immediately confirm the accidents.
Following the incident, several hundred Hasidic Jews demonstrated outside 71st precinct headquarters. Their leader. Rabbi Samuel Schrage, charged that the police acted like Nazis” and told his followers to take their badge numbers.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
