Posted on 09/04/2006 11:31:17 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The masked man who firebombed an Orthodox Jewish school in Outremont on the weekend initially aimed his burning Molotov cocktail at the window of a classroom occupied only 20 minutes earlier by at least 12 teenage boys, surveillance tapes show.
The man, who is believed by police to be in his 20s, remains at large.
The tapes show 12 religious-school students who spent Friday evening in the classroom leaving along the school's front sidewalk between 11:40 p.m. and 11:42 p.m.
As many as 20 students - age 14 to 16 - usually attend the regular Sabbath evening dinner and get-together in the classroom the firebomber initially targeted, school president Alfred Gestetner said.
At two minutes past midnight Saturday, the tapes show, the man lit a Molotov cocktail on the sidewalk in front of the Skver-Toldos Jewish Boys School and approached the classroom's window, immediately west of the school's main entrance.
He cocked his arm as if to fire the Molotov through the glass - but hesitated, possibly noticing a window screen visible only at close range.
The man instead turned to the school's main entrance, a few steps away.
He launched the still-burning Molotov through a glass panel next to the main doors and fled as light flared from the explosion.
The attack caused damages initially estimated in the range of $20,000 to $60,000 - and sent shudders through Montreal's Jewish community and elsewhere.
Police have launched an investigation but aren't labelling the attack a hate crime "at this time," said Constable Benoit Couture, because the attacker didn't provide a written message or leave graffiti indicating his motive.
For the time being, he added, police are treating this as an arson probe.
Gestetner said police have assured him that three extra patrol cars have been exclusively earmarked to keep a close eye on Jewish institutions in the area. The school is on Ducharme Ave., slightly west of Bloomfield Ave.
Whatever the judicial definition of a hate crime, the firebombing "is a dangerous, despicable act of hate," said Leah Berger, co-ordinator of community and government relations for the Quebec region of B'nai Brith Canada.
"The violent targeting of a religious building cannot be tolerated by our society," said Jeffrey Boro, Quebec president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. He condemned "this anti-Semitic act."
Montreal's Sun Youth Organization offered a $5,000 reward to anyone furnishing details that lead to the firebomber's arrest and conviction. Sid Stevens, executive vice-president, described the donor as a French-Canadian businessman who wishes to remain otherwise anonymous.
The same businessman promised a $15,000 reward when the United Talmud Torahs elementary school in St. Laurent was firebombed in spring 2004, destroying its library.
After St. Laurent, Stevens said, "this is the second-most-worrisome incident" of this nature he can recall.
"There's been nothing in any way close to this going back to the Second World War" in the Montreal region, he said.
The fresh firebombing is "very, very disturbing," school president Gestetner said.
But "police still have to complete their investigation" before he'll declare this a hate crime, he said.
"Things have been very peaceful here for 30 years," added Gestetner, also president of the 300-family Toldos Yakov Yosef Skver synagogue, a congregation formed three decades ago.
The synagogue has operated the males-only school - currently with about 250 students age 2 to 16 - for the past 25 years. It runs a separate girls-only school nearby with about 350 students.
The volume of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada registered with B'nai Brith has tripled since the start of hostilities in the Middle East in July, Berger said.
"Police have launched an investigation but aren't labelling the attack a hate crime "at this time," said Constable Benoit Couture, because the attacker didn't provide a written message or leave graffiti indicating his motive."
Huh? Oh, I get it. Someone was trying to collect insurance money.
Another *non-terrorist* attack?<!
Go round up the Amish and the Methodists -- it has to be one of them.
The left/islamics is outraged that they were allowed to live I guess.
"aren't labelling the attack a hate crime "at this time," said Constable Benoit Couture, because the attacker didn't provide a written message or leave graffiti indicating his motive."
I guess if a bunch of white guys beat up a black guy they have to leave a note, for it to be a "hate crime"?
Aren't labelling this a hate crime yet? What a blessing nobody was inside at that hour. What do the police think this was, a childish prank? It was an overt act of terrorism. Why shouldn't police in the NAU call a spade a spade? Are they afraid? And if so, of what?
"Police have launched an investigation but aren't labelling the attack a hate crime "at this time," said Constable Benoit Couture, because the attacker didn't provide a written message or leave graffiti indicating his motive."
We must not rush to judgment in such matters, for who is to say he's not merely antiZionist? /sarc
Maybe they should get a lip reader to see if "Allah Akbar" passed the guy's lips.
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It's the Eskimos.
The cowboy in me says a few thousand "WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE" posters and leaflets are in order.
If this isn't a hate crime, what is?
Police have launched an investigation but aren't labelling the attack a hate crime "at this time," said Constable Benoit Couture, because the attacker didn't provide a written message or leave graffiti indicating his motive.
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No, they're ot labeling it a hate crime because the victims are not from one of the protected minorities. Gee, I wonder if the perp is a blond Lutheran....
Whether or not the perpetrator escapes human justice, he will never escape the justice of Qel-HaRuchot lekholBasar.
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Jews have been part of Montreal for decades and decades and decades and here come these mofos... fresh off the boat... Muslims have lived in Montreal only a generation or so....
These bastards come along and start bothering the Jews. Words cannot express how I feel about the cowards of the Muhammad cult. This cult is a cancer. Their mosques should all be razed
Those kids were lucky!
Another Not Terrorist Associated.
File it in the drawer full of other ones.
Couldn't have said it any better myself.
Sand nazis. They need to be buried..
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Wasn't a hate crime, either!
NOT!
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