NY Rabbi Plans Armed Night Patrol in Brooklyn

Reuters ^ | June 23, 2002 | Reuters

[FormerLurker]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A right-wing Jewish group is planning an armed anti-terror patrol of Jewish areas in Brooklyn on Sunday night, even if it means arms bearers will be arrested, the rabbi who heads the group said on Sunday.

Rabbi Yakove Lloyd, who founded the Jewish Defense Group in 1985, said he expected between 25 and 40 people to participate in patrols of the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn organized after FBI warnings that fuel tanker trucks could be used in possible attacks on Jewish targets.

The group abandoned a plan last week for an armed patrol of Jewish neighborhoods after a public uproar and warnings from the police that anyone attempting to patrol the streets armed with a weapon would be arrested.

The original patrol plan was conceived after CBS News carried an interview with accused bomber Abdul Rahman Yasin, conducted in Iraq, in which Yasin said the group that planted a bomb in a World Trade Center basement in 1993 had initially planned to attack Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Lloyd said the patrol plan was revived after the FBI said gasoline tanker trucks could be used in attacks in the United States or against U.S. interests overseas, with Jewish schools and synagogues as possible targets.

"We're within our legal rights to peacefully assemble and to bear arms," Lloyd said. "Those are our legal rights and we're well within them."

Lloyd said he expected some members of his patrol to be arrested and that his group would have lawyers and bail money on hand in case of arrests.

The rabbi said on Saturday the patrols would begin at 9 p.m., but on Sunday decided to start them three hours later.

"We don't want residents to interfere with us and we figure they'll all be asleep and we could do what we need to do," he said.

[FormerLurker]

Any news yet on how the patrols went?

[FormerLurker]

BTTT

[EggsAckley]

Imagine how it will look when the first Jews are relieved of their weapons by the NYPD. Doesn't bode well.

[OldPossum]

Notice that Reuters touch: "...right-wing Jewish group." If a "left-wing" group were to take up arms you can be darn sure that there would be no trace of anything suggesting left-winters.

I wish them success. The NYPD is going to look pretty silly rounding up these people who only seek to protect themselves.

[OldPossum]

"left-winters" = "left-wingers"

[toddst]

I wish them success. The NYPD is going to look pretty silly rounding up these people who only seek to protect themselves.

The NYPD needs to be cooperating with these people, everyone working together to protect the Jewish neighborhoods from terrorists. One would think a cooperative effort would be a win-win for all concerned. I guess that's asking too much of the NYPD and their political bosses. Sad.

[FormerLurker]

Imagine how it will look when the first Jews are relieved of their weapons by the NYPD.

Perhaps people will begin to realize the extent that we have been relieved of our God given, Constitutional Rights. Seems to me that this might be a good test case for the US Supreme Court.

[FormerLurker]

Notice that Reuters touch: "...right-wing Jewish group."

I suppose "left wing" refers to socialists who wish to ignore the Constitution and prefer a totalarian state. As far as I've seen the term "right wing" used, it is generally used to describe those who are pro-Constitution and prefer limited government in the form of a Constitutional Republic. I've seen the term misused and applied towards various radical hate groups though. Sort of the same word games they use with the term "milita", which the Constitution refers to as meaning all adult citizens of the United States.

Many public officials think the word refers to "someone who is advocating the overthrow of the US government". Apparently, these people have never read the Constitution or much of anything else concerning our history.

[maximus@Nashville]

If they need some help, I am sure they can find it here in the South. Most of the good ole boys have never even met a Jew, but have been wanting to shoot a terrorist ever since 9-11...

[RCW2001]

Jewish Patrols Fail to Materialize
Mon Jun 24, 8:46 AM ET

By TED SHAFFREY, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - There were no signs of armed patrols a rabbi promised in two heavily Jewish neighborhoods because of an FBI ( news - web sites) terrorism warning.

Photos AP Photo

Rabbi Yakove Lloyd had said his armed patrols would meet at two Brooklyn street corners, but the only people who arrived Sunday night were reporters, police, community leaders and curious residents.

Early Monday, however, Lloyd told the Associated Press that the patrols had gone ahead as scheduled. He said 25 members of his right-wing Jewish Defense Group patrolled the streets holding shotguns in bags, handguns and bats.

Police had no comment, Det. Robert Price said.

Officer Dominick Scotto said the streets were closely monitored at the time the patrols were to take place.

"They can't be standing out here with a shotgun, that's for sure," said Scotto, while on patrol at midnight. "If they have a baseball bat, they'd better be on their way to a game."

Joining Scotto was the captain of the 70th precinct, John Argezziano, and state senator Carl Kruger, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhood.

"If Rabbi Lloyd would crawl out of his hole and show himself with his phantom troops that don't exist I'd tell him that he's the real terrorist," said Kruger.

Lloyd said in a news conference Sunday that about 50 members of his group would patrol the Flatbush and Borough Park neighborhoods from midnight to 6 a.m. on three random days of the week. He said only those licensed and trained would carry firearms, and the rest would carry bats.

Lloyd announced the patrols after authorities said fugitive Abdul Rahman Yasin had asserted that those responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing had originally targeted heavily Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Yasin is sought by the FBI in the bombing, which killed six people and injured 1,000 others.

On June 16, Lloyd suspended the plan after meeting with overwhelmingly negative response from Brooklyn residents and lawmakers.

But Lloyd said he renewed his plan after the FBI warning Friday that terrorists could be plotting fuel tanker attacks.

When Lloyd first announced his intentions two weeks ago, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said anyone carrying a gun in the patrol would be arrested.

[EggsAckley]

"If Rabbi Lloyd would crawl out of his hole and show himself with his phantom troops that don't exist I'd tell him that he's the real terrorist," said Kruger.

Public Servant Senator Kruger certainly sounds mean spirited here. "Crawl out of his hole" ...? Somebody needs to check out Kruger; he sounds like a Nazi.

[FormerLurker]

One of two possibilities here.

1) The Rabbi showed up with patrols and the NYPD looked the other way to avoid giving him the publicity that would have resulted from any arrests.

2) The Rabbi and his patrols never showed.

As the Rabbi hasn't yet shown that he actually DOES have supporters, I'm beginning to wonder if he ever did really plan to patrol neighborhoods...

---

Week of June 19 - 25, 2002

Militant Rabbi Scores Press but No Troops
A Killing Without Guns
by Chisun Lee


n a day filled with national headlines revealing his campaign to dispatch shotgun-toting civilians into residential areas of Brooklyn, Rabbi Yakove Lloyd was delighted to hear that the Voice wished to hitch along on one of his Jewish Defense Group's planned nightly patrols. "Of course, of course!: He fairly sang into the phone last Tuesday, declaring himself a great fan of the publication. "The press conference is on Sunday at noon, then the first patrols leave at nine."

Despite the hype, he did not sound like a man consumed by his stated motivation—fear inflamed when fugitive Abdul Rahman Yasin, wanted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, disclosed in a June 2 television interview that the city's Jewish enclaves had been the original target. Nor did he sound like the angry face of "the Jewish fist," as he likes to describe his group, prepared to extinguish a suspicious interloper without a moment's hesitation. Rather, he was a guy enjoying the happy dilemma of too many press requests to patrol along.

"Channel 2, Channel 4, Channel 7," he began, ticking off an impressive list that reached all the way to CNN. "I've been bombarded," he confessed, ever since he ordered his secretary to fax a June 9 notice to the Associated Press and Reuters announcing that armed patrols would monitor for terrorist activity in Flatbush and Borough Park. What captured the attention of world media was not the heightened security Lloyd offered—although rumors that future terrorism could be of the corner-synagogue, small-potatoes variety suggested community patrols could actually be helpful. It was his mention of pump-action shotguns and 9mm pistols. "But not to worry," he soothed. "We'll get you something for an exclusive."

At the June 16 press conference on a Borough Park street corner, however, Lloyd arrived with little to offer anyone. A slight man with large eyeglasses and an anxious manner, he stood alone, without the promised scores of supporters, enduring a battery of skepticism from the media. "Where are your members?" one reporter asked. "Why are they afraid?" demanded another. "It just looks a little bit fictitious," a third snapped, too annoyed to phrase the remark as a question. Lloyd watched as a phalanx of politicians stole much of his thunder; State Assembly member Dov Hikind made a widely reported spectacle of ordering the rabbi to "go home!"

In an interview with the Voice several days earlier, Lloyd had claimed his group enjoyed a membership of 4000 to 5000 who paid $25 in yearly dues. Regarding the patrols, he had boasted, "I can get more than 50 people within an hour to a particular place." Nearly 80 men and women between the ages of 18 and 65, including college students and professionals and three law enforcement officers, had signed up to patrol seven nights a week wielding shotguns, handguns, and baseball bats, he claimed.

He spoke of Thursday-night training sessions in "how to be an effective street fighter" at a secret location in Queens. And Lloyd, whose parents were intimately involved in the militant—according to the FBI, terrorist—Jewish Defense League of the assassinated Meir Kahane, declared, "I would like to follow in his footsteps, except live."

His initial announcement last week sparked fear and anger in targeted areas, where on any given day a good number of residents in hijab can be found shopping and socializing among the Hasidim. Local officials reported receiving dozens of phone calls from constituents of all stripes concerned about vigilante violence. (Existing civilian watch groups—such as the Shomrim patrols in Williamsburg and Crown Heights, which are unarmed and sanctioned by the NYPD—have been accused over the years of using unjustified force by mainly Latino and black residents.)

The head of one community center in Bay Ridge said her Arab and Muslim clients "absolutely refuse to step one foot outside of this neighborhood" into abutting communities Lloyd had claimed as his group's turf. One lifelong Borough Park resident of Egyptian descent, Amal Elsheemy, said, "This kind of thing is going to raise hostility. We've never had any issues. Now I should worry if my mom is walking down the street, because she is covered and looks different, like she doesn't belong here."

Lloyd denied there would be racial or ethnic profiling. "There are Jews who are darker than African Americans. There are many Jews who look like Arabs and the other way around, so you can't look for an Arab terrorist. You have to use your imagination, be creative," he said. Asked then to imagine a potential suspect, he said, "That's a very hard question to answer. You're looking for anything out of the ordinary, people who don't belong. Somebody who wears a heavy coat in the summer." He said his group was not trained in surveillance, explaining, "We can't train for something that we don't know about."

The federal government's numerous terror alerts and calls for citizens to be vigilant had "lit a fire under my apathy," he said. "The FBI and CIA said suicide attacks will inevitably happen here. I advocate every group who believes they're in danger to start self-patrols." Referring to a March directive from D.C. that good Americans go forth and double the number of neighborhood watches within the next two years, he said, "That's how I see fulfilling the mandate of President Bush's statement."

"If we see anyone strapped with dynamite in a heavy coat in the summer, we're going to shoot to kill," said Lloyd. He agreed a real-life scenario would likely be murky and conceded that the group's lack of surveillance training "could lead to an error in judgment, absolutely."

That kind of talk brought out droves of detractors to Sunday's noon press conference. Politicians from every level of government vied for airtime with increasingly feisty denouncements. ("He's a wacko loco!" offered Brooklyn Councilmember Simcha Felder.) Members of the 66th Precinct, prepped by a week's worth of media inquiries to the NYPD and mayor's office, were out in full force.

The vehement community opposition was why Lloyd decided late Sunday to call off the night's patrols, he explained for news reports that evening and on Monday. But journalists who showed up at the appointed hour and launch point, just in case, groused that he had called nothing off—there had never been an army of armed vigilantes in the first place. One Canadian reporter, covering Lloyd's group for both a major newspaper and a radio network, went red with mortification when she learned she had filed a story destined for early editions about patrols that would not be.

Lloyd called the Voice Sunday night to deliver that promised exclusive. He denied that his critics had cowed him, and he fumed at the suggestion that his troops of supporters existed only in his dreams and were at best an elaborate ruse to win fame. He insisted he had had "over 50 people ready—they made arrangements with baby-sitters," but that the threat of blanket arrests had deterred them.

"We're going to regroup this week, get our lawyers ready, get people who have money for bail if need be. And then if we get arrested, we get arrested," said Lloyd. "We have a lot of people in our group. We're going to show people we have a large group. We're not finished."

Whatever. Shotgun patrols might have made for sexier copy, but in a larger sense, no news from Lloyd was good news.

[dcwusmc]

Trying to send an email to the senator from his website gets an error. I guess he's not really interested in hearing from constitutents or other interested parties... I tried sending this to him:

Have you ever read the Constitution for the United States of America? With emphasis on the part which reads: "A well-regulated (meaning, in the vernacular of the Founders, well-trained and properly equipped) militia (meaning now, as then, the whole body of the people) being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people (meaning the same here as in the First, third, fourth and ninth amendments) to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Why is it that people like you have a problem with THE PEOPLE, including folks like Rabbi Lloyd, from bearing arms to protect themselves? Is what you have in mind so horrendous that it would be thwarted by an armed populace? So it would seem. I am sure glad my mother is safely out of the clutches of your ilk. You are despicable. In these times, you should be beating the drums for repeal of every unconstitutional (which is all of them) victim disarmament law on the books so that we, the people can protect ourselves without interference from the likes of you and your minion cops.

Sincerely but not YOURS,

David Wright
Retired United States Marine

[Alberta's Child]

This guy is nothing but a pain in the @ss. If Mr. Lloyd's fellow citizens in neighborhoods like East New York and Bedford Stuyvesant decided to organize armed patrols like this, he would have been cowering in the mayor's office demanding protection from "those" people.

[dcwusmc]

email the (not so) good senator at KRUGER@senate.state.ny.us or see his bio at here

[Twodees]

Kruger would make a nice lamp post ornament. Tyrants look nice swinging in the breeze.

[A Navy Vet]

I second that, David.

David Wright is vice-chairman of Veterans for Constitutional Restoration (VetsCoR). Jim Robinson and Kevin Martin (Trueblackman) are on the Board of Directors, as well as, other concerned and principled veterans.

Please take a moment to review our Mission Statement on site. We are building interest and alliances, and are beginning our primary mission of Constitutional education by dispersing pocket-sized handouts of the Constitution at various events this summer. We believe the root solution to many of our nation's problems is the education of our citizens regarding the history, form, and scope of our Republic and the rights they are steadily losing. Please support us in our efforts.

[dcwusmc]

Thanks, Rodger. and bump back to you!

[FormerLurker]

Great letter David. Semper Fi...

[dcwusmc]

Thanks. BTW, when are you coming to visit and join VetsCoR? See the link HERE.