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Hundreds of Hasidim mob Borough Park streets in protest

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

(Brooklyn-WABC, April 4, 2006) (WABC) -- At least three people are under arrest after hundreds took to the streets in a violent confrontation with police.

It started when officers pulled over an elderly driver for allegedly talking on his cell phone. When police say he refused to cooperate, the situation turned ugly. It started on 16th Avenue in Borough Park.

Eyewitness News reporter Lucy Yang is at the scene with more.

Smoke was rising from this Hasidic community as hundreds butted heads with police tonight. The neighborhood was thick was outrage.

Police are saying this was not a riot, it was not especially violent. However, we are told there were three arrests and two officers injured as authorities tried to quell a very tense night.

Raw, burning hostility raged on 16th Avenue in Borough Park as garbage fire lit the streets and riot police parted the crowds, forcing hundreds of residents back, thinning their ranks but not diluting their anger.

All of this erupted after a 75-year-old man, Arthur Schick, was pulled over by police for allegedly driving while on his cell phone. But what should have been a quick summons quickly disintegrated. Residents say officers were far too aggressive with the elderly man. The incident happened outside the Schick Bakery, which his family used to own.

Sariel Windawsky, owner of Schick's Bakery: "What I saw was Schick standing outside his car and the police officer threw him against the car, put his hand up behind his back and ... he was screaming 'I'm not resisting, I'm not resisting.'"

However, officials claim the man threw himself on the ground. He is now under arrest at the 66th Precinct.

Some residents claim this extreme reaction has been building, blaming the recent increase in tickets for the short fuse.

"This community has been hit very hard lately, the last half a year or so, all kinds of tickets," a member of the community said.

Whether simmering anger over tickets was enough to turn one incident into this is unknown.

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