Hassidic leaders of the predominantly Jewish Crown Heights section of Brooklyn will meet with Police Commissioner Michael Murphy tomorrow to discuss security measures for the area. Plans will be offered by the Commissioner for integrating into the civilian auxiliary police units the radio car “safety patrols” set up by the Orthodox Jewish groups to deal with the mounting wave of muggings, assaults, robberies and other forms of violence directed against the Jewish residents of the area.
The crime wave in the area was brought to a head this weekend when a Jewish school-teacher returning home about midnight was raped and murdered in the self-service elevator of her apartment house. The murder occurred on Friday night while the radio car patrols set up by the Hassidic group were being manned by non-Jews because of the Sabbath.
The Rev. Bryan Griswold, the white rector of the predominantly Negro St; Mark’s Episcopal Church, who led a group of white and Negro Christians manning the patrols on the Jewish Sabbath, said that the murder “obviously points up the need for something like the patrol force and I would not think there would be any thought of disbanding now.”
The New York State Legislature will launch an investigation into the outbreaks of violence in the area, it was announced earlier by Anthony P. Savarese, Jr., chairman of the New York State Assembly Committee on New York City Affairs. He said today that the murder “points up the need for immediate action.”
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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.