New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to boost police presence in multiethnic neighborhoods to combat a rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes has received pushback from liberal Jewish groups, which contend the measures will further divide communities.
Over the weekend, De Blasio announced several new policing measures in response to seven hate crimes in as many days, culminating with an attack in Monsey, New York, that left five members of the Orthodox community wounded after a knife-wielding assailant stormed the house of a rabbi.
The measures include stepping up police patrols in neighborhoods including Borough Park, Midwood, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg, as well as establishing community-based neighborhood safety coalitions overseen by the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes.
In addition, the city announced an increased police presence at houses of worship and during local events.
Six new surveillance towers and additional security cameras are to be installed throughout the neighborhoods.
However, the announcement drew pushback from some quarters mindful of law enforcement’s often troubled relationship with African-American and Latino communities, especially as the additional policing is happening in neighborhoods where De Blasio’s predecessor’s stop-and-frisk policies are recalled for being applied unjustly and along racial lines.
“This is what dividing vulnerable communities looks like,” Jews for Racial & Economic Justice said on Twitter.
“Instead of investing in restorative solutions that prioritize the safety of all communities is implementing a plan that treats abuse of Black and Brown communities as the answer to antisemitic violence. It isn’t,” the group tweeted.
After an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh early last year, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice took a similar stand against plans by the administration of US President Donald Trump to step up security around places of worship, warning that “increased police presence and security will militarize our community spaces.”
Other groups agreed.
Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement that “the rise of anti-Semitic violence this past week highlights the urgent need to organize as Jews with our allies who share an expansive idea of equality and freedom,” but that “calls for more police and paid security” were not a solution.
“We know we have to address rising white nationalist violence — against Jews, Muslims, black people and all people of color — while not relying on the very forces detaining and locking up and killing our friends, family and neighbors,” it said.
“Flooding POC [people of color] neighborhoods with cops is going to carry real costs, potentially even fatal ones, for tens of thousands of people who have no complicity in these attacks. I’m also deeply uncomfortable with the optics of cops functioning as security for Jews against POC,” Jewish Currents editor David Klion said.
Despite the rush to deploy extra police, city officials, including De Blasio, appear keen to learn the lessons of the Crown Heights disturbances of the early 1990s that found Jewish and Black communities clashing violently.
“The story of Crown Heights bears remembering right now,” De Blasio said, recalling how racial groups came together.
“It took constant dialogue and constant effort to reach residents of the community, particularly our young people, and it took painstaking work. But the division that was healed and it has been changed into a community where people work together,” he said.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears. The proposals are “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement on Monday in response to queries from Bloomberg. The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB
RSS