Sandy Eller – VIN News
Brooklyn, NY – One week after an Israeli court approved Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ request to extradite a former Crown Heights resident to the United States in order to face charges of a 2008 bias attack, people are rallying to his support, calling the district attorney’s campaign politically motivated and a miscarriage of justice.
Yitzchak Shuchat, who now lives outside of Tel Aviv, was indicted for second degree assault as a hate crime, following the alleged April 2008 beating of a black man, Andrew Charles, on Albany Avenue in Crown Heights. Shuchat, a member of the Shmira crime patrol was responding to a report of two black men throwing rocks at a fourteen year old Jewish girl when the alleged attack occured. An arrest warrant was issued for Shuchat four weeks after the incident, but by that time a nervous Shuchat had left the United States, first for Canada, before finally settling in Israel.
Charles, the son of Moses Charles, an NYPD officer, stated openly on News 12 that he believed the attack was an isolated attack and was not racially motivated. Despite the protests of both Shuchat and Charles, the attack was labeled a bias crime and the district attorney’s office convened a grand jury to conduct an investigation, something that Charles Hynes has done only four times in his twenty two year career as a district attorney.
“We feel the DA’s office has gone over and above the norm to try to bring Yitzhak to trial and bring him back as a trophy to the black community, perhaps because of his father’s position within the NYPD,” Levi Freundlich, Vice President of the Jewish Leadership Council, a Crown Heights based organization that is attempting to raise awareness of this case. “We are suspicious of the district attorney’s motives and consider this to be a gross miscarriage of justice.”
With just weeks left to appeal the extradition, Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind sent a two page letter to Yaakov Ne’eman, Israel’s Minister of Justice, asking him to consider the facts of the case very seriously.
“What makes this a hate crime?” Dov Hikind asked in a VIN News interview. “Based on the simple facts, a patrol went to a location where criminal activity was reported. They went out to protect the community and resulted in what we are now faced with, being charged with a hate crime. I’m sorry, I just don’t see it and I hope my letter will persuade the Minister of Justice to take a closer look and see that this is an alleged assault not a hate crime.”
DA Hynes raised eyebrows at the time by comparing the Shmira patrol to gang members saying, as quoted in the Daily News, “You can’t have a group, whether it’s the Bloods, Crips of Shmira, acting like vigilantes.”
But others questioned Hynes’ strong reaction to this question, questioning his motives.
“They are looking for a scapegoat because this was a police officer’s son,” Daniel Goldstein, Shuchat’s uncle, told the Daily News in 2008.
If convicted, Shuchat faces up to fifteen years in prison.
View letters of support from various Rabbonim
Donate to the Pidyon Shvuyim fund at www.freeyitzi.org.
America is one of the most aggressive and corrupt police states in the so called “western civilized society”.
Antisemitism is more and more showing its dangerous filthy face. A serious advice for all Jews, get out of there while you still can. Do not be surprised if soon you have to run and leave everything behind! In Europe and the US the next holocaust is just around the corner. I hope and pray daily that Moshiach will surprise us first.
You want to compare what happened here to taking a man, hanging him and burning his body? Who’s the idiot?
If a Jew is ever attacked and wants immediate police protection all you need to do is dial 911 and say a cop was attacked. and before you can blink ten times you will have every cop in town at the scene. Otherwise forget it, they may or may not show up -eventually. This case is all about it being a cops son. But the question begs to be asked, why is it being totally ignored that this creep actually was attacking an innocent person? why does he not have to answer for that???? Why didn’t hynes put any effort… Read more »
Shuchat want time approached me for money and i asked him for what he needs it He explained me the reason Shuchat is a real tzadik there was some one from the shechuna that passed away .The family was broken and crying for help how they going to bury their loved one. They had no resources to pay for the levaya . Shuchat went to the family and said dont worry i will take care of all the expenses. The family was completely inshocked with such ahvas yisroel. They family thought that there was a malach that fell from heaven… Read more »
They are looking for a scapegoat because this was a police officer’s son,” and all the yidden that are attacked killed or live in fear when walking at night… forget about the cops and “every jew a .22
Iyh it should all work out forget the knesset
Over the duration of Yitzchak Shuchat life, Yitzchak has come to accomplish exceptional amounts of services for his community as well as for various individuals in need. Moreover, he is very well known throughout his community as a result of his kindly gestures and hence, most of his constituents would testify to the notion of his selflessness. At the young age of 7, Yitzchak Shuchat ventured into the world of assisting those in need by accompanying his father to provide services for patients of all cultural background within New York City hospitals. Some of the services included, feeding patients who… Read more »
any one that does not think that yitzy is a hero is simply ungrateful, this young man would receive Shmira calls at all times of the day and night, he would leave the comfort and safety of his home and risk his life to protect every inhabitant of Crown Heights. We all need to get together and do what ever it takes to help him get out of the grip of this Anti Semite Hynes. lets remember who Yitzy is being accused of committing a hate crime against for which if convicted C”V would face 15 years in prison, 2… Read more »
Thank you Levi Freundlich and Berel Sugar for standing up for the Jewish Nation. Although this case involves Shuchat it has a much deeper and darker component, which is what we see in the Rubashkin story PURE ANTI ANTISEMITISM, DA Charles Hynes and all the other corrupt individuals in law enforcement who are jumping on the opportunity to GET THE JEW. We Shall not forget what happened to MIKE NIFONG THE DUKE LACROSS D.A. see the fox new story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,282874,00.html who was willing to throw 3 white college boys to the dogs just to appease the the black community, and… Read more »
FOR SOME REASON, SINCE THE COMPLAINER WAS THE SON OF A POLICE OFFICER, THE POLICE DID NOT THINK THAT THE LAW APPLIES TO THIS INVESTIGATION. APPARENTLY I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THE LEVEL OF POLICE MISCONDUCT AS THE CITY ALREADY PAID OUT ALMUST $100,000 IN DAMAGES FOR POLICE MISCONDUCT SURROUNDING THIS INCIDENT. CITY TO GIVE FAMILY 95G FOR HATE RAID- NYPOST.COM
sarcasm? or are you really serious?
he is a guy that all his life was doing chesed, even during his current matzav in israel he would bring meals to people in hospitals.
Since you sound so logical can you explain the fact that he is being extradited from another country? You are living with your head buried in the sand.
The man who threw rocks should be carted off to jail. I sincerely hope this extradition does not work because it will give potential criminals the very comfortable feeling that a Jew fighting back will have measurements taken against him that are out of the ordinary in the extreme, by the federal government no less, and in direct contrast to the actions taken against the typical dangerous criminal. This is a very serious situation which would not bode well should it actually be put into action c”v.
Bar Kamtza had a legitimate grievance. He was accidentally invited to to the party of his bitter enemy and was humiliated and forced to leave. Many rabbis were there and nobody came to his defense. So he was legitimately angry. But what he did to get revenge ended up destroying the Bais Hamikdosh and putting the Jewish peopel in exile. So we have the same case here. Some members of rival patrol groups have some grievances against each other that may or may not be legitimate. But the community is suffering in the process of exacting their “revenge.” Because we… Read more »
movie whats a movie????
Dosen’t matter what we personally feel about Yitz the truth is the truth he didn’t beat this kid because he was black he beat him because he was throwing rocks at a Jewish girl imagine your daughter having rocks thrown at her because she is Jewish. If anyone remembers later that summer in 2008 a Jewish boy was brutally beaten with a bat “for his cellphone” there was no plan to charge the agressors with a hate crime. If we don’t support Yitzi financially and emotively, then we have surely turned out backs to the Rebbe, who was committed to… Read more »
I just saw a movie of early New York City 1800s violence vigilante — the police establishment against poor innocent working class who were demonstrating for equal rights… you know what they did to a black man working and demonstrating? They tied up his body on a telephone pole and burned him as an effagy… this is the same thing right here… this stinking act of bias sets back the already downgraded police authority to a bunch of wimps and sucks to the “so called establishment”… Hey Police, might as well wear a top hat of the early 1800s you… Read more »
Um, the police should take care of the assailints, his job is not to attack them put bring the girl to safety. He is not a cop, and broke the law trying to take it into his own hands.
Although I’m all for justice I think this extradition is a very unbalanced act and therefore very wrong. I did hear a recording allegedly of shochat on the day of his sisters wedding that does not show him in the greatest light however, with the attention that this case is getting you would think that this is singapore and this was the first, and worst that anyone has ever gotten beaten up. This is Brooklyn where crime is reported in our community all the time. Why are they extraditing from Isreal 1 Jew who was reportedly retaliating against a crime… Read more »
Its so nice to see people step up and try to help a fellow jew.
Good for Freundlich! This is ridiculous Yitzi is a kindhearted man HaShem should help him.