Brooklyn Cops Speak to BP24 about How NY's Criminal Justice System Fails Jews on Many Fronts

By Yehudit Garmaise

Since 2018, only one of the 118 adults who have assaulted Jews in hate crimes in NYC has been convicted and served even one day in prison, an Americans Against Anti-Semitism (AAA) study reported in July.

The only perpetrator who was convicted had choked and beat a visibly Jewish man in his mid-50s who was walking home from shul one Shabbos afternoon in Crown Heights.

When asked about the near constant reports of assaults on Jewish men in Brooklyn, NYPD officers who patrol Brooklyn told BoroPark24 that “with bail reform, the NY state legislature laid a blueprint for disaster.

“Criminals truly feel ‘empowered.’

“How did this happen?”

“First, the NY government has created an environment in the city and state that it is OK to attack people and that those who do it will get away with it.”

“The liberals, the Democrats, the state legislature, and the City Council, for some reason, have enacted laws to protect criminals more aggressively than we protect victims of crime,” the Brooklyn police officer said. “Criminals have been given the freedom to commit crimes over and over and over again-some 50 to 100 times- without any repercussions.

“The criminals are much more protected than the actual victims of crimes in NY.

“The NYPD is doing its job: making arrest after arrest after arrest.”

The NYC Hate Crimes Task Force has made 44 arrests related to attacks on Jews so far in 2022 compared to 33 in all of 2021.

In just the past month, the department has arrested one of the perpetrators who punched a 31-year-old Jewish man on June 23 in Crown Heights and two perpetrators, one of whom is 14-years-old, who sprayed fire extinguishers and whacked two men in their 70s in Williamsburg two weeks ago.

But the attacks continue. Last night in Williamsburg, a 40-year-old mother and her 20-year-old were struck with BB pellets that were fired from perpetrators who were driving on Whyte Avenue.

Threats of street harassment, minor assaults, and even full-on beatings of visible Jews are “a part of life,” one Boro Park resident said with a shrug after teenagers from other neighborhoods were setting off fireworks to scare locals on 13th Avenue.

While the recent spate of hate crimes against Jews in Brooklyn is worrisome, Boro Parkers do not tend to see such hateful incidents in their own neighborhood, Baruch Hashem, one resident said.

Citywide, however, when the NYPD reported a 76% increase over last year’s incidents of hate crimes, the attacks on Jews had more than tripled and accounted for most of the spike.

As a result, many Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, sadly, can’t help looking over their shoulders as they walk down the streets of their neighborhoods.

In Williamsburg, Rabbi Moshe Indig, said, “It become very scary to walk on the streets alone, it's more than just on edge. People are afraid to walk out from when it's getting dark outside.

“You never know from which side you'll get suddenly attacked for no other reason than being religious.”

As to whether things might be cooling down, the policeman said honestly, “Every day is different,” but the statistics keep rising.

In July, the NYPD recorded the number of hate crimes that targeted Jews as 15, which has almost doubled from the eight hate crimes that were perpetrated against Jewish people in July 2021: showing an increase of 114%.

Some Orthodox Jews are now so demoralized with the city’s lax criminal justice system that they don’t even make police reports after attacks, one Boro Park Shomrim member said.

“While Jews should take care to record attacks with their cameras, take photos of license plates, and record descriptions of perpetrators, we also must call Shomrim for help, pick up when Shomrim volunteers call back, and make sure to file reports with the NYPD.