A new civilian watch group in Crown Heights is bringing together blacks and Jews in a neighborhood once synonymous with racial tension.
If all goes as planned, a Caribbean-American pastor could share a car with an Orthodox Jew on the NYPD Civilian Observation Patrol – or blacks might volunteer for Friday night shifts, when their Jewish neighbors can’t work.
“It’s a quantum leap beyond what it was in 1991,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, referring to the riots that rocked the community nearly two decades ago.
About 50 residents have signed up for the police-sponsored group, completing 60 hours of training before they got black jackets, ID cards and hybrid cars with NYPD emblems.
“You are now officially the eyes and ears of the department,” Kelly told them in a dedication ceremony outside the 71st Precinct last week.
There already are Jewish patrols in the area, Shomrim and Shmira. In the past, there’s been friction between the two – and with the black community.
In April, off-duty Shmira members allegedly beat a black man, the 20-year-old son of a cop – sparking a police investigation and fanning racial tensions.
Members of the Shomrim and Shmira groups said they welcome the NYPD-backed patrol in the neighborhood.
But while several Shmira volunteers have joined, Shomrim members have shunned it so far.
Shmira member Levi Huebner, 40, signed up and said the NYPD is “giving us resources and training to do the job properly.”
The job may be more important than ever with budget cutbacks translating into fewer police officers on the streets.
Richard Green, director of the Crown Heights Youth Collective and a patrol organizer, said he hopes to make it “a massive movement.”
Police brass hope it will be a unifying one.
“Ideally, we’ll have one patrol that incorporates everybody,” Kelly said.
Crown Heights resident Alexis Kennedy, 25, a Brooklyn College student, was surprised – and slightly skeptical – to hear about the multicultural patrol.
“To have the two communities working together is an awesome idea,” she said. “Will it work? I don’t know.”
More mesira.
Whoever leaked that should be very ashamed of himself.
Time for ONE patrol, and this one, whatever its flaws, sounds like the best plan for now.
ALL the infighting has to STOP now. On ALL sides, EVERYWHERE. It is a complete chilul Hashem and maase sitra achra.
Actually, the decent black residents of Crown Heights have less patience for the hooligans than we do. Keep in mind that they are often unfairly lumped together with the hooligans if only because it is physically hard to discern the difference between a fine working man (often an immigrant or the son of an immigrant) and a third generation welfare dependent and petty criminal who brings more shame to the decent Black community than the trouble they cause all of us. And most crime, even in CH, is black hooligans against decent black people. I used to go to the… Read more »
Brilliant idea to get blacks and Jews together to patrol the area BUT:
It’s even smarter to have Shomrim not be part of an official government thing.
What will happen when the next mayor or whoever decides to round them up, or question or harrass the people on the list? Or order them to go home or the like.
Then shomrim will step up.
Don’t worry about the shiny NYPD garbage, you are the real deal.
check out the ny daily news tomorrow
massive story which will blow this wide open!!
hi slomeh you look great there
I am happy to see this BUT the macabees first started due to lack of responsibility and sensitivity from the NYPD Yes we came along way since then But i feel that the NYPD having a joint patrol of all comunities will do benifit only from the political point of view but as soon as a real issue arises, a ratial one…. we are ALL up a creek. i have no idea what is going on between between these 2 patrols nor do i care even though i live here… the fact that one patrol has joined its own members… Read more »
facing each other nose to nose as a community
beileve convince themselves anything good luck but it wont be long for some “complication” and “misunderstanding” to “arise”
2 robonim
2 nitzigim
2 counsels
and now…3 patrols
oy vey
mr. huebner is not in any way 40 years old, wishful thinking
Why not?
go eli
Won’t work.. waste of time…
i can spot him a mile away from his, uh, original clothing
Looking great!