Rockland County, NY – Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence will look to mend splintered fences with his police department tomorrow night by publicly taking back his criticism of Police Officer Jonathan Quinn.
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St. Lawrence said tonight that he will make amends to Quinn personally and publicly, saying he will apologize if his calling Quinn insensitive to a Hasidic woman’s religious views during an arrest were insensitive to the officer and department.
A few weeks ago St. Lawrence fueled a firestorm across the town by calling Quinn’s decision to photograph Shifra Cohen, 24, of Monsey, without her wig insensitive. Married Hasidic women wear a wig for modesty and don’t allow men other than their husband to touch them. Quinn also fingerprinted her.
Cohen and her husband, Joseph, are accuse of stealing more than $8,000 in Medicaid by underreporting their income on their applications. They were two of more than 40 people charged with fraud, but have drawn attention because they complained about Shifra Cohen’s treatment at booking.
Some Hasidic Jewish leaders threatened a demonstration for his actions. St. Lawrence met with community leaders and Cohen and her husband and cooled off the community.
Now he’s looking to cool hot feeling among police officers and will discuss the issues tomorrow night.
“If my comments were insensitive to the officer, I will apologize to the officer and the department,” St. Lawrence told The Journal News tonight. “I will make it clear that the officer did follow the training he was taught. My intent is to take the silver lining out of this incident and strengthen our policy, procedures and general orders and our training.”
St. Lawrence said he will meet personally with Quinn, who has been advised by his union president, Officer Dennis Procter, to keep a low profile and not talk about the incident.
St. Lawrence said a fact-finding report by Capt. James Quinn will not be completed by tomorrow’s meeting. St. Lawrence said the report will state Jonathan Quinn did follow the department’s written procedures.
Procter and many residents already have argued Quinn followed procedures and the Hasidic Jewish community should not get special treatment from the police. The incident has added to already tense feelings between some Hasidic Jews and some secular residents and other Jews, some religious and some non-religious.
In response to the incident, St. Lawrence has called for the police to have sensitive training on the Hasidic community, with Rabbi Simon Lauber of Bikur Cholim showing officers a video on the community.
St. Lawrence also said he wants to extend the training to other ethnic communities.
St. Lawrence said that when he speaks at tomorrow night’s meeting, he wants to make it clear his goal to improve the police department and strength relationships with the town’s diverse communities.
He said he would make it clear the police department’s video system was broken for some time. He said the system was not tampered with by the police when Cohen was being processed – as he said some conspiracy theorists have proffered.
St. Lawrence has won elections as supervisor on the strength of overwhelming support from the Hasidic community and some Orthodox Jewish communities. His support for housing for the religious communities and other services has led to opposition from many non-religious areas of the town.
Maybe simon lauber should make a video and show the monsey chasisishe people about being sesitive to thier goyish neighbors. Its a 2 way street Both sides need traing but you never hear about the chassidim needing traing to understand how the goyim live and how to be sesitive to thier beliefs and way of life? why the double standard??
Of course we should be sensitive to everyone around us, but this was directed toward public servants, who most likely get sensitivity training regarding minorities and alternative lifestyles.
All he’s asking for is that we get the same.
And we have sensitivity training. It’s called the Torah. We’ve got to practice it as well.
Maybe they could show a video, of how to fill out program apps honestly, & show what happens when one cheats, so that this chillul Hashem doesn’t repeat itself.
Maybe the woman arrested should have kept her moputh shut it was embarassing enough that she was arrested for an alleged crime, that would have not been made public, what ever happened to avoiding a chilul Hashem? an issur/mitzvah that so many Yidden died to perform or prevent.
It is a shame that society feels that it is more important to wear a shaitel and carry on in public rather than be Mikadesh Shem Shomayim B’farhesiyah.
If it was a muslim women you woud understand that if she would of asked for a women to searc and finger print her.
and as for cilul hashem ,you self hating jews are making it more then any one condming chasidik yidden all the time.thats y hitler yimach shmoi started in germany.because there where jews like u thatallways try to be nice to the goyim and condeming the frum yid
This woman has a big zechus, because now after she made this big awareness of how wrong it is and what a sensitive issue it is to remove a shaitel and to be handled by a male officer, this will not happen again.
R’ MB weissmandel Z”L, [the biggest Nazi fighter], didn’t hold like you.
He writes after the war, one can see that most german yidden came out alive & retrieved a good portion of their possesions, inspite of the fact Hitler YM”SH ruled Germany. where as the polish Yidden were killed & lost all they had. Who knows if it wasn’t the honesty of the German Jewery which protected their assets. Whereas the Polish Jewery who at difficult times had to be Moireh heter, owed a debt to their gentile neighbours which they repaid with their possesions & blood.
So according to R MB who brought Hitler? It wasn’t the self hating Jew. Think twice before cheating on programs, that is what makes Sina.
the Ro’sh says you should pay taxes, because that is what they want from us, not the opposite.
The medrash says, Hinei Yechabel oven etc. that dishonest money ruins the honest money, and it all evaporates.
Please post comments responsibly as all comments are moderated.Easy, Poshuter Yid. Hitler Yimach Shmo hated Jews simply because they were Jews. Don’t even imply for a moment that the Jew brough Nazi Germany upon himself for being decent to a non-Jewish neighbor. While arguments are made that the Holcaust was a result of Jews attempting to blend into German society, no one can honestly know the cheshbon of the Aibishte. Leave that Cheshbon to the Aibishte. Let us not forget that many non-Jews saved Jewish souls from the Holocaust.
But let us not confuse the 2 points here. It is not Jew-hating to recognize that a crime committed by a Yid, especially when made so public, is a Chilul HaShem. And that brings the eyes of world upon us. Of course the act of fraud does not absolve the laws of Tznius or Erva, but there are those who might see the hypocrisy of breaking the law and then crying religious sensitivity. Yidin are still bound by civil law. How truly frum is one who commits a crime.
SHAME on St. Lawrence for cracking under pressure from a few self-hating Jews.
He knows it was wrong and so did the cop.
This is a disgrace no matter if they are eventually convicted or not.
Mobsters with multiple murders under their belts are known to be treated better by the FBI and police.
St. Lawrence is trying to pull the string on both ends and will end up a bigger fool than John Kerry.
Besides a few “Bicks” and some anonymous bloggers everybody will end up being mad with him. The cops will never forgive him and most Frum Yidden now know what a flip-flopper he is.
we are in golus; we have to bend over backwards and not stick our heads out.
“Hisgaros Be’imos” is not only Zionist over Arabs, but Jews over their Hispanic neighbors on Brooklyn, or white neighbors in Monsey,
1.05 I think one may quote reb MB Weissmandel, the RO”SH & Medrash,that doesn’t count as saying your own reason for Hitler YM”SH, and are you enough of an authority to argue with r’ MB Z”L?
I am interested to know about the German Jews who survived Hitler and regained their possessions. Sounds to me like someone misquoted the Rabbi Weissmandel or the rebbe was quite misinformed. Jews today are still regaining what was stolen from them by the Nazis..
No body was talking about reclaiming, he was talking about “retaining” [not all] their possesions & lives, at the time of the war. [proportionaly compared with the polish Jewry]
Read the quote again, & again until you understand it.