It Can Happen Here

Before we uppity Americans condemn the Afghans for their disproportionate response to a traffic accident, we need to recall Crown Heights, New York in 1991.

Causes of the riot

The events that ignited the Crown Heights riots, and its record in the history books, are mired in political and racially-charged assertions and accusations. On a cemetery visit to his father-in-law's grave, Yosef Lifsh, driving a car owned by Yehuda Zirkland, either ran a red light or passed through the intersection lawfully, striking and killing a seven-year-old Guyanese boy named Gavin Cato and seriously injuring his cousin Angela, also seven years of age. Eyewitnesses have given various reports of the car's speed, from 25 miles per hour to 65. Some witnesses claimed that the vehicle sped through the red light and that the driver smelled of alcohol. Lifsh, who escaped to Israel before charges could be filed, was later found not to have been issued a driver's license. What is not denied is the fact that as the car crossed the intersection, it was hit by another car, causing it to veer out of control and run over Gavin. A private Hasidic ambulance from the Hatzoloh Ambulance Corps came to the scene and removed the Hasidic driver on the orders of a police officer, leaving the injured boy behind. A city ambulance arrived after to treat Gavin, who died of his injuries at a nearby hospital. The incident sparked a riot that was ultimately fueled by long-standing underlying tensions between black and Jewish residents of the neighborhood.


Scope of the riot

African-American residents of the neighborhood then rioted for four consecutive days fueled by a belief that the treatment of the car accident victims was unequal. Fires were set and shops were looted as the riot grew out of control. A visiting rabbinical student from Australia by the name of Yankel Rosenbaum, 29 years old, was killed during the rioting. Before dying, Rosenbaum was able to identify 16-year-old Lemrick Nelson, Jr. as his assailant. Nelson was charged with the killing, but acquitted. Claims that he admitted to having stabbed Rosenbaum were dismissed by the jury. Even though Nelson was acquitted of murder by a state court but after protests by the Lubavitch community and others, Nelson was charged in federal court with violating Rosenbaum's civil rights and received a prison sentence of 19.5 years. In 2002, he was granted a new trial, at which he admitted he stabbed Rosenbaum, but his attorneys argued that the stabbing wasn't a hate crime triggered by Rosenbaum's religion, but merely the consequence of Nelson being drunk. One other man, Charles Price, 44, was charged with inciting a mob, including Nelson, to "get Jews". Price was charged in federal court one day before the expiration of the statute of limitations for that crime. Nelson was released to a halfway house on June 5, 2004.