New York City Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said last night, after a meeting with Hassidic leaders who organized a citizens radio car patrol in the crime-ridden Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, that the project was not a violation of law “and I have not asked them to stop.”
Rabbi Samuel Schrage, organizer of the citizens patrol cars, held a meeting with the Police Commissioner to discuss the wave of muggings, assaults and other attacks on the predominantly Jewish population of the area. The patrol has been assailed by Negroes as a “vigilante” action against Negroes in the area.
After the meeting, Rabbi Schrage said that the petrols “continue to be on the streets and they will remain as long as they are needed.” He added that the Commissioner “did not ask us to disband and we are not going to until more policemen are trained and sent into our area.” The Commissioner made it clear he did not in general approve of such groups but that the Hassidic Jews were “not breaking the law.”
The Commissioner said he will assign “a number” of extra police patrol cars to the area and promised also to station more patrolmen there on a permanent basis next August.
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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.
