Baltimore, MD – When Pauline Watson felt threatened by teenagers loitering outside her condominium in this city’s Park Heights neighborhood, she didn’t call the police. She called Shomrim.
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“We were scared, okay?” said the 65-year-old African American, adding that most tenants in her building are elderly.
Police in this crime-ridden city have their hands full with more serious matters, Watson said, and often cannot respond quickly to non-emergency calls in her working-class neighborhood. Shomrim was on the scene within minutes, she said, and dispersed the teenagers peacefully.
Since 2005, Shomrim, an Orthodox Jewish volunteer unit, has added a layer of safety to this city, residents such as Watson say. Calling themselves additional “eyes and ears” for the police, more than 30 Shomrim volunteers man a year-round, 24/7 hotline, responding to 130-150 calls for help each month.
Maj. Johnny Delgado, commander of Baltimore City Police Department’s Northwest District, where Shomrim patrols, calls the citizen squad “invaluable.” But a recent violent encounter between Shomrim and a black teen sparked a larger confrontation between the city’s black and Jewish communities, with both groups accusing the other of harassment and racial hostility.
In November, a black 15-year-old accused Baltimore Shomrim volunteers of accosting him on the street, striking him on the head with a radio and saying, “You don’t belong around here” – a predominantly Jewish section of Park Heights.
Eliyalu Eliezer Werdesheim, 23, a Shomrim volunteer and former Israeli special forces soldier, and his brother Avi Werdesheim, 20, who does not work with Shomrim, have been charged with false imprisonment, second-degree assault and possession of a deadly weapon. Both are scheduled to be arraigned in Baltimore City Circuit Court on Feb. 16.
But Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein – the city’s top prosecutor – decided to drop a more serious felony assault charge against the elder Werdesheim, enraging some members of the black community, who have protested outside Bernstein’s office.
“What does this move say about how much city leaders value the lives and safety of black teenagers in Baltimore?” asked the Rev. Heber Brown, vice president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. Brown is one of several black pastors calling on Shomrim to halt operations until the Werdesheim case is settled.
According to Brown, Shomrim is a “violent fringe group” that should diversify its volunteer corps or disband. Several other black pastors and community leaders have echoed that call.
Shomrim officials refused to comment on the record. Attorneys for the Werdesheims have said the brothers acted in self-defense after the teenager threatened them with a nail-studded wooden stick.
Read more in Washington Post
Perhaps this lady & other non-Jewish people whom Shomrim have helped should show up to the hearing & be prepared to stand up in their defense.
In every minority community you have rabble rousing Sharpton like revrends who couldn’t care less about their “youths”. They only care about getting a headline and the newspapers are only too happy to comply.
These shomrim need more training in diversity. It is normal in the afro-american community for the youth to be loud and “rowdy”. That is part of their culture. If they intervene, they should be prepared to be arrested themselves if they violate the civil rights of others.
Let Shomrim just patrol the jewish areas and let the black community deal with its own bretheren’s security needs. Maybe this will satisfy the pastor.
While the concept of ‘Shomrim’ ma have its merits, its organizers must take care in the selection of recruits.
There is absolutely no place in a private security force for gung-ho biryonim, or would-be Jewish racial supremacists, who have no regard for the civil rights of other people.
The lady who voiced her opinion is one of the many Afro-American citizens terriefied of young thugs and she is honest. Those who came out against the shomrim are the so called activists who live off the misery of their brethren/sisters , are lousd vocal activists but don’t give a hoot about the plight of women/men terried of this criminal element. Thge “civil rights” of a Rabbi walking and pelted with stones is off the books and a man attacked with brsss knuckles and curse as a Jew are unimportant. Wake up anonymous and look at the ratio of crime by whom
civil rights have no color, religious affiliation, economic status. They are ineliable rights to every citizen, old, young, Christian and even Jews and most of all they are colorless
There is no reason that this Reverand cannot supply people who will train with Shorim to help the security of the community.Rather than segregate and call for stopping all extra help to the area why not integrate and unite, I’m sure Shomrim could use the training too, unless there are other factors taking place here that we are unaware of.
The shomrim are response to a malaise which is teenage thugs. Single parents homes cannot and will not cured by the Reverend . These are social problems which require a response by the community and most of all the Afro-American community instead of a rabble rousing People’s Congress help with social problem. The city is strapped for money and of course nobody wants to pay higher taxes for social assistance. Teenagers are unwed and mothers. The Shomrim or the North Western Citizen Patrol did not exist years and walking was safe because the teenage hoodlums /or darlings did not rule the streets
To #3- For you to state “that it is normal for African-Americans to be loud and rowdy, as that is part of their culture”, is in itself a bigoted, biased, and sterotypical statement. Do you think that the vast majority of law abiding African Americans enjoy seeing noisy and loud ruffians? Morgan Freeman, in the movie “Lean on Me” characterized such deviant individuals as “disgraces to their race”.