Mayor, NYPD Commissioner Provide Extra Security over Pesach, Urge Community Collaboration

 By Yehudit Garmaise

 Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewall, Inspector Richie Taylor, and other leaders shared security strategies for the Jewish community over Pesach in an annual meeting that has been held every year since 1979.

 To better prepare the NYPD to protect the 1.5 million Jews who live in New York City, the NYPD is training police officers about Pesach laws and customs, said Mayor Adams on the zoom meeting today, which was moderated by Inspector Richie Taylor.

 “We are going to do our job,” said Mayor Adams, who added that precinct commanders attend local community meetings “to provide sensitivity to officers on patrol.”

 Addressing the Jewish community, the mayor said, “We constantly see so many of you giving back to the community, which makes me proud and the city proud.”

 One example the mayor gave was on Jan. 9, after 17 victims in the Bronx died of smoke inhalation from a deadly fire.

 “The world saw the Jewish community immediately respond with hot food and clothing,” said the mayor, who said he “took his hat off to Masbia, Shomrim, Hatzolah, and all the in community who have been working side-by-side throughout the years.”

 “Let’s continue to work together to keep the city safe,” said the mayor.

 NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell expressed the NYPD’s commitment to the Jewish community and her hope that everyone in the community will continue “to foster a close collaboration.”

 “As in previous years, our patrol force will play a significant role in Passover security,” said Commissioner Sewell. “You will witness an increased presence of uniformed officers who are strategically placed in your neighborhoods.

  Sewell encouraged Jewish community members to inform their local precincts about prayer times and any Pesach special events at which extra security may be needed.

 “Public safety is a shared responsibility, so we rely on you to keep us informed about your community’s events,” Commissioner Sewell explained. “If you see or hear anything suspicious, please notify the police department at 311 or the terrorism hotline at (888) NYC-SAFE.”

 The NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Community Affairs Mark Stewart said, “We are planning for Passover, and we are taking safety very seriously.

 “You will see an increase of community affairs officers and patrol officers at synagogues,” Stewart said. “Please reach out with anything you need. We are always here to help.”

 “Community partnership enables our ability to identify threat actors early on and allows us to move to prevent or rapidly respond to any act of violence, hate, or harassment, said Meghann Teubner, the NYPD’s director of Counter-terrorism Intelligence Analysis.

 While the NYPD’s “intelligence bureau does not, at this time, have any indication of a specific, credible threat to New York City or Jewish institutions over” Pesach, said Teubner, her department always keeps its eyes out for violent extremists who may view holidays as times to perpetuate attacks.

 For instance, Teubner sadly recalled the last day of Pesach three years ago, when 19-year-old John T. Earnest entered a Chabad shul in Poway, Calif., opened fire, injured three Jews, and killed 60-year-old-Lori Kaye, a mother, who jumped in front of the shul’s rabbi to protect him.

 Recalling the terrible attack of a 21-year-old Jewish man in Williamsburg on Friday night, Council Kalman Yeger emphasized that such terrible crimes persist only because such criminals feel they can get away with it.

 “District attorneys have to be able to prosecute in real time and in a real way the criminals, who have to be locked up,” Yeger said. “We have to stop this revolving door that allows them to get locked up for doing something, and then they return right to the streets.

 “So, it is incumbent on us as a community to keep our eyes and ears open and continue to gather video footage of perpetrators to help police find them.”