Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: AROUND THE NATION=Hasidic Jews' Suit Alleges Lack of Police Protection< Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 04:53:56 EST Message-ID: <51.1992Nov18.045356@AmeriCast.com> AROUND THE NATION=Hasidic Jews' Suit Alleges Lack of Police Pro- tection< NEW YORK - Twenty-two Hasidic Jewish residents of Brooklyn charged in a federal lawsuit yesterday that New York City violat- ed their civil rights by denying them police protection during three days of racial disturbances in August 1991. In a class-action suit, the plaintiffs accused Mayor David N. Dinkins (D) and former police commissioner Lee P. Brown, both of whom are black, with agreeing to withhold police protection then in Brooklyn's Crown Heights. The lawsuit said the city administration discriminated by "favor- ing the interests of black citizens over the rights of Jewish ci- tizens . . . subjecting the lives and property of Jewish residents to the mercy of antisemitic criminals." It charged that police refused to investigate the violence properly, failed to arrest those responsible and destroyed evidence of their mis- behavior. Dinkins, pleading for racial tolerance, defended his actions. The trouble began after a car driven by a Hasidic man struck and killed a Gavin Cato, 7, who was black. A Hasidic scholar visiting from Australia was stabbed to death a few hours later.< Police Seek New Trial Venue