Brooklyn, NY – Assemblyman Dov Hikind will be holding a press conference this morning, following the release of security tapes from a Crown Heights youth center that shows two police officers repeatedly beating a 21 year old student who had been spending the night at the facility.
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“Based on what I have seen I am in absolute shock that something like this happened and it obviously requires a very serious investigation,” Hikind told VIN News last night, after viewing the footage which was obtained from the ALIYA Institute’s security cameras.
The press conference will take place at 11:30 AM this morning at United Lubavitcher Yeshiva, 570 Crown Street, at the corner of Albany Avenue in Crown Heights.
According to Barry Sugar of the Jewish Leadership Council in Crown Heights, on Oct 8 2012, police were called to the scene by an unidentified individual who entered the center in the early morning hours and asked the student, Ehud Halevi, to leave the premises, despite Halevi’s assurances that he had permission to spend the night at the facility. Sugar told VIN News that many students at the ALIYA Institute have keys to the East New York Avenue facility.
Reports in the Daily News identify the man who called the police as Zalmy Trappler, a 24 year old volunteer security guard at the ALIYA Institute, who told the Daily News, “I regret making the call. I should have let him sleep. It spiraled out of control.”
“The video, which begins at 4:03 AM on Shemini Atzeres shows the NYPD officers entering the room, waking up Ehud and demanding that he leave,” said Sugar. “Confused and disoriented, Ehud tells the cops that he has permission to be there. The cops do not listen to him or attempt to verify his right to be there and, instead, move to arrest him.”
The footage shows Halevi backing away from the two officers as they approach him with handcuffs and a violent confrontation ensues for approximately two minutes with the officers beating Halevi repeatedly first with their fists, and then with a nightstick, as Halevi covers his head with his arms in order to protect himself. While the video does show ten additional police officers arriving on scene to assist the officers it does not appear to show Halevi fighting back against the officers in any way.
Halevi was held on Rikers Island for four days and charged with nine counts of criminal activity which included assaulting and injuring an officer.
VIN News has confirmed that the NYPD has seen the security footage. The NYPD told VIN News they hope to have a response to the video shortly. Police told NY’s FOX 5 News that Halevi allegedly threatened to fight with the officers if they arrested him.
Hikind, who confirmed that Halevi had permission to spend the night at the ALIYA Institute, called the actions of the two officers horrifying and is planning on holding a press conference later today.
“Those two officers behaved like animals,” said Hikind. “Watching it made me and everyone who watched it with me sick. It wasn’t a question of whether or not he had permission to be there, which he did, how can two police officers who are sworn to uphold the law, break the law like that? I have been close with the NYPD for years and there are so many fine officers but clearly these are two bad apples. What I saw on that video was beyond comprehension and we will be calling for an investigation into this matter.”
While one early news report claimed that Halevi had gotten drunk the night that the incident took place, Rabbi Moshe Feiglin, director of the ALIYA Institute, categorized the report as a blatant mistruth and vouched for Halevi, a member of the facility.
“Ehud has been traumatized by this event but miraculously suffered no major injuries,”,” said Rabbi Feiglin. “While this is an open case and I can’t disclose any details, I can confirm that the member was allowed to be there, had full rights to be there and there was no tresspass whatsoever. We are committed to the safety of our members and ensuring that ALIYA remains a safe haven for the young adults in our community who need a place to go. What happened here was wrong and we will do everything in our power to make sure that it is rectified and never happens again. We will do our utmost to get Ehud the best legal care available and will continue our mission of helping young adults.
The video below posted by Jewish Leadership Council in Crown Heights shows the confrontation.
Who called the police?
cops in crownheights are lowlifes. Sorry Hikind, maybe your experience is with cops from 66th precinct in boro park where they just eat pizza and poke fun at chassidic kids all day. Cops in crownheights are reluctant to get involved in helping people or responding to calls. all the time we hear the same story about someone catching a theif in their house and reporting it to a cop on the corner, and the cop does nothing but stare back at you. These cops were probably either bored from not doing real work (which they refuse to do anyway, which is why crime in CH is up the roof), or just stupid. probably both.
terrible!!! jews are too easy going, if the victim was black there would be massive riots in crown heights. i would like to see what the NYPD does to rectify this
I have one simple question:
Who called the police and why did they call?
At the start of the video there is what appears to be another person in the video who is NOT a police officer. Who is that person?
I am going to reserve my judgment here until we have a better understanding of WHY those cops were there and why they felt so threatened by this person. I have a feeling there is more to this story than we know.
People are starting to see the true colors of NY police. When it was occupy Wall Street nobody said anything. Citizens must unite against ALL injustice. Wake up people.
Very shocking and disgusting. Some of these police officers are just thugs with badges. I definitely will share this video on my social media.
This is without any doubt a very disturbing video. Mr. Halevi clearly resists the attempts of the officers to be handcuffed. The male officer then goes into an attack mode by taking a boxing stance. What is missing is what was said by all involved….there may be two versions of that truth. What needs to be established is who was the individual who called the police and under what authority was that person acting.
!רשע למה תכה! הלהרגנו אתה רוצה
These animals are worst than nazis, No it’s not a few bad apples anymore, it’s the norm behaviour, an outrage must be heared, of 0 tolerance for these kind of Sadism!
Don’t blame the police…this guy is clearly resisting orders from the police to put his hand behind his back so he can be handcuffed in accordance with NYPD rules. He then attacks the police who used reasonable force to subdue him. He should be charged with assault and Hikind should be sanctioned for inciting the public against good police action. Dov is generally right, but in this case he has his facts 110 percent wrong.
However, he was resisting arest. If he had permission to be there, he cooperates and clears up the misunderstnading at the police station, not make the police chase him.
It’s hard to know the whole story; however the man is clearly resisting arrest – which seems to have led to the officer punching him in the first place, the next 2 minutes looks like a struggle to turn him over and put handcuffs on him.
While I may not know many details about this situation, there is unquestionable brutality here. The attack by the officers is obviously unprovoked. I really do not care what issues the officers may have, but I would expect nothing less than termination of their employment. There is a place for police to get violent and forceful in enforcing the law. This was not even a question of being in that category. Fire them. Dov- get ’em.
If he would have put have his hands behind his back he would not have been beaten. Obviously I’m not saying he deserved the beating. The reason he resisted arrest is because he claims he had permission to be there. Obviously the cops thought otherwise and were arresting him so I think initially resisting arrest was the wrong move but I can’t blame him. Either way the statement that comes out from the NYPD will probably say he resisted arrest and the officers used necessary force to subdue him. He needs a lawyer not Hikind. Hikind is holding an ‘Al Sharpton’ press conference for his own agenda.
I can’t believe that Dov Hikind is so naive. Has he forgotten how the cops behaved in Borough Park in 2006, when they manhandled Mr. Shick (the owner of Shick’s Bakery), because his car was blocking them, and in their view, the 75 year old Mr. Shick was “too uppity” towards them? After the citizens of Borough Park saw how Mr. Shick was brutalized, there were large crowds which formed. The cops called for backup, and were physically rough with innocent bystanders who happened to be in the area. Hence, nothing has changed over the years. I guarantee that the cops will all receive a slap on the wrists, as their standard modus operandi, which is tolerated by the brass, is assaulting citizens, who in their estimation offer any amount of resistance.
The young man was just woken up and likely inembriated. he didnt deserve to be beaten and clubbed for being drunk in a place he had permission to be.
How did the cops know he didn’t have a gun in his pocket or a knife? Just because he was sleeping doesn’t mean he is innocent!
Why is he sleeping here anyway? Why don’t we help our poor boys who are OTD?
I’ve seen too much of this behaviour by the NYPD, over BH a long life, in so consistent a manner, and all of it justified in the most self-righteous and arrogant of ways, that on at least three occassions I haven’t called the NYPD when I’ve seen something. When I’ve argued with cops about their ‘justifications’, they’ve said I should feel grateful and lucky that I’m safe because of them.
I’ve seen them behave needlessly violently with old people, too, and with people helpless due to physical disabilty.
I’ve been personally threatened by a pair of NYPD patrolmen for witnessing a needlessly violent incudent. In that case, there was no video or other evidence to back up what I heard and saw, so I was advised later not to help the victim by filing a ccrb complaint, that at best it would be a major waste of time, and at worst the thugs would come back in the future and make up a reason to charge me with something.
The very first time was when I was about seven years old, and a puerto rican kid has stolen something from my zeidy’s store. The cops brought him to my grandfather, who identified the boy and the merchandise. Then the cops took the kid, a teenager, behind the store, we hear
The man was clearly resisting being handcuffed and physical force was needed to subdue him. He continued to resist even while pinned to the couch. I’m thinking a tazer would have caused less harm to him than a beating at the hands of the police. The bottom line is, did the police follow procedure?
It does appear the police were aggressive. It could have been handled a different way. The police, after being told by the man he had permission to be there, could have summoned the security guard who originally told them that he had to leave the premises. Perhaps, then, the security guard, in combination with the police, could have persuaded the man to leave without the use of force and arrest. Perhaps. But the police response will be that the two officers, after clearly being told by someone in authority that this man was trespassing – a crime – had proper discretion to command him to leave the premises, or, get arrested. The police had every right to disregard the man’s so-called information that he had permission to be there, having already been told otherwise by the security guard. Thus, once this man refused to voluntarily leave, the police were authorized to arrest him. He clearly resisted arrest. So, yes, the police were aggressive, it could have been handled a different way, but at the end of the day, I believe their actions were justified. Dov Hikind is going nowhere with this, especially since there were no serious injuries.
Very scary video…I’m sure the NYPD didn’t know they were being videoed…there was no need for all this violence and the whole precinct, and then some, to show up to handcuff this man. What if there would have been a real emergency elsewhere? Also, in the video the man was fast asleep motionless as the police had time, very slowly I might add, to put on their gloves…whoever put in the call to the police for a man sleeping is also responsible!!
100% of all cases of Police brutality against anyone and everyone (where the videos’s always show that cops are unreasonable) is ALWAYS because of an out of control Ego problem of the cops.
There should be STING OPERATIONS against all nyc cops and we can get every single one of them arrested because every single cop has this ego problem.
Whenever a cop is VERBALLY disrespected, the cops always respond with unreasonable physical violence.
It’s very easy to make a set up sting operation to catch every single cop in the same way, all that needs to be done is to begin purely verbal insults and disrespect to the cops and watch them use their clubs every single time, watch them make LIES of trumped up charges in response and watch them make false arrests and unjustified summons in response.
If anyone says that cops are pigs, they could not have said it better but only if you disrespect law enforcement will they unleash their pig-ness.
Rubashkin got 27 years thrown at him for the same reason because he showed extreme (verbal) contempt and disrespect of the law enforcement peoples feelings and so they threw the book at him in an unreasonable way because their ego was hurt.
Reports in the Daily News identify the man who called the police as Zalmy Trappler, a 24 year old volunteer security guard at the ALIYA Institute, who told the Daily News, “I regret making the call. I should have let him sleep. It spiraled out of control.”
CLEARLY THIS ZALMY TRAPPLER IS THE CULPRIT IN ALL OF THIS.
Our kinder should not be getting drunk on simchas torah. Why don’t we pay more attention to their drinking? This is a shanda!
Black men in their teens and 20s living in Hikind’s district get roughed up by the police on an almost daily basis. Sometimes the rough police treatment is necessary but many times it goes beyond appropriate procedures, just as appears to be the case in this video. Has Hikind even one time held a press conference for such a black person? Has he ever once made a statement condemning abusive police action directed towards someone other than an Orthodox Jew?
Typical out of control NYPD above the law bullies.
Tell me, where were our voices when Rudi let the NYPD terrorize the black and latino communities? Where were we when Rudy showed up with the same “just a few bad apples” nonsense after every incident?
How many of you still worship Bob Grant and Sean Hannity even after they defended the animals in uniform who savagely attacked Amidou Diallo and blamed the victim for his injuries?
You can’t have it both ways. Either you support so called law and order candidates who enact harsh sentencing guidelines sending R’ SMR to prison for life or vote for the more liberal minded candidtes. We cannot have it both ways.
Why was a call made on Smini Atzares for a non life threatening problem and why were video cameras running on Yom Tov? There a lot of missing information.
The NYPD in Crown Heights are worse then the criminals. I live there and I know from past personal experience. The only thing to do is to contact the outside media and plead with the Post, Times whomever will listen to come down and do an expose, that will get the attention of the Doughnut Squad. PS If you need a cop call dunkin doughnuts on Empire and Washington.
as soon as the officers attempted to place him under arrest he resisted. then he swung his arm at the male officer to move him away, as if resisting arrest wasn’t enough. if i was the officer i would have done the same thing. he should be promoted. i’m sick of everyone automatically siding with the guy just because he looks jewish. this is not berlin circa 1935…just the police doing their job.
I see the guy resisting the whole time, even when they had him pinned down.
who called the police
They seem to throw the book at us. Why can’t we throw the book at the cops? The tape speaks for itself!! If I were that kid I would sue the pants off of those officers — all 10 or 12 of them!! He had permission — there is a time when these boys in blue should use Q-tips and start listening to the people they are talking to!! If they cannot listen– they need HEARING AIDS!! OR throw them ALL off the force, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!! I am sure Mr. Kelly will come running to the rescue!!
1)I read in another news article that the young adult is a special needs adult
2) no need for back up of 10 other cops. u wud think the young man was armed…
I see a guy who was sleeping there with permission, but suddenly woken up in middle of the night by cops, he was confused and disoriented and they didn’t give him a minute to get put his shirt on and fully wake up. Looks like the volunteer security guard was there too and the sleeping guy was trying to explain that he had permission to be there and nobody was listening to him, maybe he was having trouble explaining himself because of a language barrier. Putting myself in the shoes of someone who was woken up to three authority figures telling him he’s trespassing and knowing he wasn’t, I’d be intimidated and possibly wouldn’t use my best judgement. I would imagine this guy felt very vulnerable and when they tried to arrest him simply panicked and “resisted” thinking that he was buying himself time to explain his situation better. How many people would passively go to jail when they did nothing wrong?
Looks like he was sleepy in the beggining
This is not the first time that police behave this way against Yidden in C.H.
Last year at approximately the same time, a Yid was arrested (across the street of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva on Crown Street) Right before Yom Kippur for similar reasons which was, that he disrespected the cop and got the cops out of control Ego, to behave like a pigs.
The Vaad Hakohol, then swept it under the rug because it was right before Simchas Beis Hashoeva when they need special favors from Police.
This cover-up by the Jewish Leadership of C.H. leads police to do more of the same.
Crown Heights gets a lot of special favors from police, like closing the streets for Simchas Beis Hashoeva and closing the street in front of 770, extra police in front of every Shull in C.H. amd extra Police during the Kinus Hashluchim and Kinus Hashluchos, Kapores and many others.
Must we always sacrifice an innocent Yid so that the community as a whole benefits from extra Police protection? This has been the official policy until now!
When a Dog sees that you are afraid of him and don’t fight back and that you are on the run from the dog, the dog continues to chase you, until you put the dog in place.
Thanks goodness for video cameras.
It could have been worse, remember the Gidone Busch z’l murder by the NYPD.
I don’t think you can say this was police brutality. The situation was handled poorly and escalated. The guy shouldn’t have resisted arrest and the officer should have used better discretion.
Those cops look like a bunch of blistering blathering buffons the whole lot of them.
watch at about 4 minutes when the male cop was punching the Yid. the female cop got knocked backwards and dropped her club. she came back with a vengeance. She was already beating him with her club but about minute 4 she is completely out of control.
1) The frum volunteer who called the cops, on the 1st day of yom tov, because a fellow Yid was sleeping on a couch, should no longer have anything to do with this center.
2) This is clearly a case of police brutality.
3) Things might have gotten less out of hand had the female cop acted quickly and professionally to cuff the poor fellow instead of just watching her partner pummel the guy. The big guy who came in quickly secured the kid.
4) Why didn’t anyone from CH investigate this or arrange for an attorney while the poor Yid was in prison for 4 days? (and who knows what beatings he got in jail.)
5) The frum leadership couldn’t care less about Gidone zl HyD and won’t do much about this kid either.
6) I was taught something years ago by a Jewish police officer: NEVER argue with a person who has a gun. Police officers are thugs in the making and one must show them the utmost respect. Address them as “officer” or “Trooper” (for State police), and be apologetic and polite at all times.
That said, this kid was awakened and was disoriented and did not deserve a sucker punch followed by a beat-down.
we all know that the true american establishment are a bunch of communists ,they preach freedom to the whole world ,but they cant sort out there own back yard ,this was so sad to watch ,it brings back memorioes as to how the jews were treated and still being treated all over the world.beaten beaten and beaten