Echoes of 1991 in Crown Heights?
The Times and Sun have articles this morning about the escalating tensions between Crown Heights’ black and Hasidic communities. The stories talk about how the NYPD has stepped up its presence on the area’s streets and politicians have been holding press conferences to decry the violence, all to try to prevent the neighborhood from once…
The Times and Sun have articles this morning about the escalating tensions between Crown Heights’ black and Hasidic communities. The stories talk about how the NYPD has stepped up its presence on the area’s streets and politicians have been holding press conferences to decry the violence, all to try to prevent the neighborhood from once again becoming the war zone that produced the 1991 riots. The latest problems in Crown Heights began in April, when a black 20-year-old was attacked by Hasidic men in what the police have deemed a bias crime. Since then, black children have pelted a bus carrying Hasidic toddlers with stones and last week black youths beat and robbed a Jewish teen. The police believe the first attack against the black 20-year-old was done by someone with ties to a Jewish civilian patrol group called the Shmira. Bias crimes in the neighborhood are up this year; there have been nine so far, compared to seven at this time in 2007. Some Crown Heights residents say the city and politicians are overreacting to the spate of violence, according to the Sun, since “most of the culprits — both black and Jewish — are too young to remember the riots, and some community leaders say they are concerned that it’s actually the grown-ups who are stoking a conflict between the groups.”
Neighborhood Simmers With Tension Again [NY Times]
Threat of Another Riot in Crown Heights [NY Sun]
Photo by Frank Lynch.
7:03, thanks for your point. If people really want to go down the generalization path, I’m an mother with two young children with whom I had to commute to Manhattan from Brooklyn on the 4 train. By the time I got on the train, it was always filled predominantly with African Americans, at least half of whom were overflowing into the next seat. Maybe one time in those six months did an African American offer a seat to me 2 and 4 year-olds. To think orthodox Jews’ behavior is any worse that African Americans or any other groups is crazy. As an Asian woman, I know about stereotyping – it’s easy to pick on different groups. If the hateful posts here were said about Asians or African Americans, I somehow think people would be more upset than they are jumping on the anti-Jew bandwagon.
7:52, it’s a fallacy to argue that, because all ethnic groups are sometimes insular and sometimes manifest subway rudeness, all ethnic groups are therefore equally insular and equally prone to subway rudeness. And while you may believe that Hasidic Jews are in fact no more insular and no more rude than any other group, there are obviously people here who disagree with you. They, like you, are free to voice their opinions. And frankly, I don’t see how anyone can seriously dispute the insularity of Hasidic Jews. I mean, don’t they have a full-blown intention to be insular? They simply are not comparable to a group of people who cling together for the simple comfort of what is familiar.
703am here again to complete my hasty and half finished post: many of the posters on this thread are picking on the lubavitch for being insular, defensive, rude to pregnant women on subways, lecherous, etc. I think that is unfair. The Lubavitch are no more insular, rude, etc than any other ethnic enclave-dwellers in NYC. For example, if you are white and you walk through Chinatown, you are basically considered an alien. Merchants may try to sell you something, but that’s about it. It’s the same in Flushing and Sunset Park. It’s also the same in Bay Ridge (large Arab population), Roosevelt Ave/74th Street (Indian population), parts of Ditmas (Pakistani), Brighton Beach (Russian) etc. I am fine with that because I grew up here and it’s what I expect. It may be a little unfriendly, but it is also understandable because people are naturally clannish when they are new to this country, were somehow victimized in the past, etc. So why pick on the Jews?
7:06, there was no threat in that message (though I can see how one might read a threat into it). However, the post *is* abusive and the poster could rightfully be banned for that reason.
I will say, though, that if M.M. would just try to be a tad more succinct, s/he would not engender this kind of ridicule. I like much of what M.M. says, but s/he *is* sermonizing and most of M.M.’s posts are *three times* as long as they should be. M.M.’s post would be not only more pleasing but more effective if s/he would edit them down to a reasonable length.
A few thoughts offered for the good of the cause…
Brownstoner: Please block posts from guest 6:53am. S/he’s abusive and threatening. Thank you. (A reader, but not M.M.)
The Jews of CH remember 1991, when the the City (Dinkins) basically permitted a pogrom to occur. I don’t think a “pogrom” from 16 years ago is a good reason to avoid engaging with your neighbors – it’s certainly not justification for beating up an innocent kid. But, it does explain the Lubavitch insularity /weariness/ defensiveness/etc.
And while Chasidic men generally have bad subway manners (aggressively pursue seating to the point of pushing pregnant women out of their way), I see male members of many of ethnic groups, including the Chinese, Russians, Pakistanis, etc do this as well. And I regularly see Black male teens taking up two-three seats, using their PSP’s with the mute-off, etc while a pregnant woman stands 2″ in front of them. But bad subway manners are just a fact of life in NYC and the best way to alleviate them would be to run more trains so that more seating would be available (although, maybe the MTA should remove some of those stupid pro-recycling/”green” posters and replace them with instructions on proper subway manners/etiquette).
12:09 was obviously me. Oh, and 3:41, I forgot to thank you for the ego boost. I never realized I had that much power. I shall have to stand on the corner and make a pronouncement, and thereby make it so.
Wow!
Montrose Morris
Ah, spend all day at a job site, and come home to this trash.
Wow, I missed all of this snappy repartee, and the blatently bigoted and sexist vomitus from anonymous teenage KKK wannabees, who seem to post more and more on this site. Seig Heil, kids, it’s Springtime for Hitler on Brownstoner.
No, 3:41, I’m not going to comment on two articles that prove that hack journalism is alive and well, here in NYC. How about some articles about the new businesses going up in CH, how about stories about the growth of the communities on both sides of Eastern Parkway? How about a complete and total coverage of these recent incidents, instead of merely throwing gasoline on cooling embers? What about a story pointing out the real differences between the Crown Heights of 1991, and the Crown Heights of 2008? That would be a worthy story of cooperation, coalitions, and yes, problems both real and perceived, that have yet to be solved. But riots? NO WAY.
The racist spewage that appears on this site really went to new lows today. The comments about Hasidic Jews, as well as black people, here today, only reinforce in my mind the need for the alliance between blacks and Jews to become stronger again, not weaker. As was pointed out by several other posters, Jews marched and died side by side with blacks and others, to aid the struggle for black civil rights in this country. We have far to go to achieve full equality, where someone’s race or religion, or sexual orientation is just a part of who they are, not the definition of who they are. From many of the disgusting comments here, we have a long way to go.
i just skipped all of them. the times article was the most interesting part…not the drivel spewed from you “people”