Posted on 06/09/2002 5:30:15 PM PDT by blam
N.y. Jews To Start Armed Patrols
Monday June 10, 2002 1:10 AM
NEW YORK (AP) - Citizens armed with shotguns will patrol the streets of the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods because of comments a suspected terrorist made about targeting them, a rabbi said.
The patrols, to begin June 16, are in response to comments Abdul Rahman Yasin made during an interview on CBS' ``60 Minutes'' on June 2, said Rabbi Yakove Lloyd, founder and president of the right-wing Jewish Defense Group.
Yasin, who is sought by the FBI in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, said in an interview from a compound in Iraq that he and his accomplices originally targeted heavily Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
They later decided to attack the twin towers because they believed most of their occupants were Jewish, Yasin said. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in the 1993 bombing.
The largest segment of the population in the Borough Park and southern Flatbush neighborhoods is Hassidic and Orthodox Jews. There are 290 synagogues in the area.
Lloyd said the street patrols would include 50 to 200 people of various religious faiths, mainly Jews, carrying shotguns in bags, along with people licensed to own and carry other types of firearms. Others will carry bats, pipes, cell phones and walkie-talkies and will patrol the streets daily from 9 p.m. until 3 a.m. except Friday, the Jewish Sabbath.
``This will be a very effective deterrent against terrorism directed at American Jews and other targets,'' Lloyd said.
The rabbi criticized the police department for not adequately protecting the neighborhoods and said, ``the only people who will view us as vigilantes already look at us that way anyway.''
It is illegal to carry an exposed shotgun on city streets, New York Police Department spokeswoman Valerie St. Rose said. She said it was unclear whether carrying one in a bag is illegal.
``We'll monitor the (patrols), and if there needs to be police action taken, it will be taken,'' said St. Rose, who declined to say how many officers routinely patrol the neighborhoods.
A community leader from Williamsburg, another heavily Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, said he opposes the armed patrols.
``The Jewish community condemns such a thing. We don't need it. We can't have civilians running around with guns. It's going to look like Beirut here,'' said Isaac Abraham.
The Jewish Defense Group is ``a group of men and women who are proud to be Jews'' and are committed to defending, demonstrating and rallying for Jewish causes and against anti-Semitism, according to its Web site.
The JDG, founded by Lloyd in Queens in 1985, says it follows the principles of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League.
In January, JDL chairman Irv Rubin and a group member were charged with conspiring to blow up a mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman in California. Rubin and his co-defendant, Earl Krugel, pleaded innocent and are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 1.
I grew up in that neightborhood, literally across the street from one, and next door to another.
I dare say property values will rise another 20% with the extra security!
Without a picture ID, she cannot get inside the building, unless someone can vouch for her. They've had to hire off-duty police to guard them, as well as a committee to screen people entering!
I had no idea and I doubt other non-Jews do, without hearing it from someone who lives the fear when they gather in a group.
This is just another in a line of double standards. Don't any Christians in the midwest get any idea being armed will be tolerated. New Yorkers carrying guns is OK. They are not religious extremists.
The mosques, however, are guarded by on-duty cops.
Go figure.
WTF? It's also illegal to carry a concealed shotgun!
ROFLMAO!
``This will be a very effective deterrent against terrorism directed at American Jews and other targets,'' Lloyd said.
Yeah,providing any potential attackers are also Orthodox Jews who won't attack on a Friday.
It is illegal to carry an exposed shotgun on city streets, New York Police Department spokeswoman Valerie St. Rose said. She said it was unclear whether carrying one in a bag is illegal.
I'll betcha if this were a white Baptist talking about carrying a LOADED shotgun in a bag,the NYPD would have no trouble at all discovering laws against carrying a loaded AND concealed weapon.
Why should mosques get free what synagogues have to pay for?? This country is upside down.
Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, but it begins at sundown Friday night. The daytime part of Friday is another religion's Sabbath.
I think they're counting the days till he's GONE.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.