Brooklyn, NY – Kings County District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson today announced the indictment of five defendants for their participation last year in the brutal gang assault of Taj Patterson, a 23-year-old Fort Greene resident.
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The defendants, who some are associated with the Williamsburg Safety Patrol Unit, a civilian neighborhood watch group, face multiple charges for allegedly beating Patterson in the early morning hours of December 1, 2013.
The District Attorney said that a Kings County grand jury has indicted the following defendants: Pinchas Braver, 19; Joseph Freid, 25; Mayer Herskovic, 21; Aharon Hollander, 28; and Abraham Winkler, 39, for acting in concert to commit Gang Assault in the First Degree, and other related charges.
If convicted, the defendants each face up to 25 years in prison.
“We simply cannot allow anyone walking on the streets of Brooklyn to be knocked to the ground, stomped and brutally beaten. Our streets must be free of such violence and everyone must adhere to the rule of law, including these defendants,” said District Attorney Ken Thompson.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said, “These indictments send a clear message that acts of vigilantism are unacceptable and cannot be condoned by the NYPD. I want to thank the NYPD’s investigators as well as the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office for their exceptional work in helping to bring these individuals to justice.”
One of the suspects was on his way back from an overseas trip, and was to be arrested upon his arrival in New York.
The police waited until after the Passover Holiday to make the arrests.
Not to mitigate what happened, but when do we get to see 4 police men arrested for brutality or do they have union that make things go a way?
Why haven’t they arrested Stark’s killers?
There were no cellphone pictures of any faces of any alleged attacker. The cops made some “intelligent guesses” (to quote a police official) in deciding who to arrest. The police and DA were under enormous pressure from Sharpton and gang for a pound of flesh to put on trial irregardless of the lack of evidence against the indicted men.
embarrassing that this happens in our community and I hope they wont judge an entire community for the despicable act of some.
Having set that, Mr. fried is still in court on other pending charges and you must come to the conclusion that this fool is out for trouble, he wont even get the “First time offender” plea which works wonders in 99% of cases.
Karma always delivers!
I highly doubt that this man was beaten becuase he is black or gay. Something stinks here and lets hope the truth will come out.Most probably they were in a scuffle where he tried to beat someone and he lost the fight.
this was certainly not a bias attack just a standard chaptsem which this perp who was drunk and broke off mirrors from cars when approached he became violent and a fight erupted between him and the shomrim this was clear self defence from the shomrim part
Thw Williamsburg Safety Patrol is not a gang. And this was not a gang assault!
This is what happens when Jews defend themselves- they get dragged into court on trumped up charges.
Something definite very fishy here…why did it take so long to make an arrest.?
Whatever the case is we need to give our Shomrim members the fullest support.
Maybe they goofed up on this case but those brave men our here for our communities 24-7 and they put their life on high risk for US….so please let no one jump to conclusions and lets give those 5 man charged our full support…
This will for sure be another Pidyen Sheveeim case and every yid will have to take out a bit from the pocket to defend those mesiraes nefesh MEN…
Shomrim should be investigated by NY attorney general and the DOJ. The sooner the group is disbanded the better for Jewish communities. There is a pattern across states where Shomrim operate in where innocent people are harassed, become victims of vigilante violence, false imprisonment, and impersonation of law enforcement. They’ll beat someone up and call in 40 Yolies to be false witnesses to accuse someone of a crime. Though cops know these things they can’t do anything because of political repercussions. One day Shomrim buffs will kill a black kid in a mob beating and will spark another set of Crown Heights riots. They’re a liability to communities they pretend to protect.
What happened here is basically this Patterson walked on flushing ave and he tried to break in to cars wspu held him down and so he shouldn’t be able to run away, but he punched 1 of the safety patrol members in the head and started running, after a block the patrol members got him and he was fighting with the members,
Williamsburg safety patrol is here for more then 30 years they take care equal if the house/car break in is a jew or not, I’ll ask you more how would that members know if the guy is gay??? And scream fag**
Commissioner bratton you and me both know that this is not a bias or hate or gang or how ever you want to call it, but what I know is that mnachem stark got murdered few months ago and no arrest has been made, why cause your busy with non sense and not with your job
There is 25 knockouts pending to be investigated and make an arrest against Jewish victims !!! I don’t see a aggressive team of detectives Working for months or even hours to do anything about it and no arrests to any of them in almost a spam of a year an justice for Jews in New York has been a disgrace there is just amazing to see the open racism from the nypd or the Brooklyn DA office they just have joy of getting a Jew arrested and will put a extra effort to just get that collar if u all claim equal show it to us an give us a chance in justice lets all make the world a better place and let’s stop the violence and crime which is really low in NYC our main concern is the horse and wagon in NYC should be taken off the road so let’s all have a safe summer and a better NYC and a better Brooklyn.
Last I heard Mr. Knockout was still roaming our streets but that’s ok?! UNBELIEVABLE
Excuse my ignorance as I’m not a New Yorker, and don’t understand all the nuances involved here.
Let me get this straight: Instead of relying on the safety provided by the Torah being learnt by all the bochrim and yungerleit in Brooklyn you actually have Charedi men providing para-police services to the community? And the Gedolei Yisroel Shilta there are comfortable with this?
“These indictments send a clear message that acts of vigilantism are unacceptable and cannot be condoned by the NYPD.”
I find this statement by the Police Commissioner curious. Vigilantism usually means you see that someone is committing a crime and then take the law into your own hands and overdo it by meting out your own version of “justice.” Now that is clearly wrong and can be a crime, but it is not the same as what was originally billed as a hate crime against someone because of their race or sexual orientation.
It sounds like there is more to the story here than we know.