by Andy Newman, New York Times
A rabbi’s plan to organize armed civilian patrols to protect Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn drew a promise from the police commissioner that those who take up weapons would face arrest.
“The department will not tolerate anyone brandishing weapons under the guise of protecting others,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. “Anyone attempting to patrol the streets armed with a weapon will be arrested.”
But the rabbi, Yakove Lloyd of the Jewish Defense Group, based in Queens, vowed to send 50 Jews armed with baseball bats, handguns and rifles to walk streets in Borough Park and Flatbush six nights a week beginning this Sunday. The patrols were inspired by recent reports that those behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 had considered attacking Jewish neighborhoods.
Rabbi Lloyd said that some members of his group who are correction or probation officers will carry their registered weapons, and that other members will carry unloaded, registered shotguns or rifles with ammunition in a separate pocket. A registered rifle or shotgun may be carried on the street if it is unloaded and in a concealed case, said Detective Melvin Simmons of the Police Department’s legal bureau.
On Borough Park streets yesterday, an unscientific survey found most residents did not welcome Rabbi Lloyd and his troops.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” said Ari Green, 51, who works at a car rental agency and was getting a watch repaired at a kiosk on 13th Avenue. “I don’t think the community wants him. Who made this Rabbi Lloyd head honcho?”
Shlomo Weissman, the administrator of a yeshiva on 43rd Street, said that the patrols sounded like a recipe for disaster. “You have this terrorist who’s been training in weapons since he’s in diapers, and he’s coming at you with an AK-47, and you come at him with a shotgun you don’t even know which end to hold it,” Mr. Weissman said. “All you’re going to do is get yourself shot.”
State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said he was “outraged” at Rabbi Lloyd’s suggestion that the police were not doing an adequate job. “The police have bent over backward to really provide Jewish neighborhoods in this city with the security they need,” said Mr. Hikind, who, like Rabbi Lloyd, was once allied with the late Jewish extremist Meir Kahane, though he has since renounced him.