Crown Heights riot
The Crown Heights riot was a race riot that took place from August 19 to August 21, 1991, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York City. Black residents attacked Orthodox Jewish residents, damaged their homes, and looted businesses. The riots began on August 19, 1991, after two 7 year-old children of Guyanese immigrants were unintentionally struck by a driver running a red light while following the motorcade of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of Chabad, a Jewish religious movement. One child died and the second was severely injured.
In the immediate aftermath of the fatal crash, black youths attacked several Jews on the street, seriously injuring several and killing an Orthodox Jewish student from Australia. Over the next three days, black rioters looted stores and attacked Jewish homes. Two weeks after the riot, a non-Jewish man was killed by a group of black men; some believed that the victim had been mistaken for a Jew. The riots were a major issue in the 1993 mayoral race, contributing to the defeat of Mayor David Dinkins, an African American. Opponents of Dinkins said that he failed to contain the riots, with many calling them a 'pogrom' to emphasize what was seen as the complicity of New York City political leaders.
Ultimately, black and Jewish leaders developed an outreach program between their communities to help calm and possibly improve racial relations in Crown Heights over the next decade.
Causes
Car crash
At approximately 8:20 p.m. on Monday, August 19, 1991, Yosef Lifsh, 22, was driving a station wagon with three passengers west on President Street, part of the three-car motorcade of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement. The procession was led by an unmarked police car with two officers, with its rooftop light flashing.The police car and Schneerson's automobile crossed Utica Avenue on a green light and proceeded along President Street at a normal speed, but Lifsh's vehicle had fallen behind. Not wishing to lose sight of Schneerson's car, Lifsh crossed Utica Avenue on a red light. There was no indication of the exact speed of his vehicle. Lifsh's vehicle struck a car being driven on Utica Avenue, veered onto the sidewalk, knocked a 600-pound stone building pillar down and pinned two children against an iron grate covering the window of a first-floor apartment in a four-story brick building. Seven-year-old Gavin Cato, the son of Guyanese immigrants, who was working on his bicycle chain while on the sidewalk near his apartment on President Street, died instantly. His seven-year-old cousin Angela Cato, who was playing nearby, survived but was severely injured.
Lifsh believed he had the right of way to proceed through the intersection because of the police escort. Lifsh said he deliberately steered his car away from adults on the sidewalk, toward the wall, a distance of about, in order to stop the car. Lifsh later said that the car did not come to a full stop when it hit the building but slid to the left along the wall and hit the children.
Death of Gavin Cato
Accounts differ as to the next sequence of events. After the collision, Lifsh said that the first thing he did was to try to lift the car in order to free the two children beneath it. Members of the Hatzolah EMS unit, who arrived on the scene about three minutes after the crash, said that Lifsh was being beaten and pulled out of the station wagon by three or four men. A volunteer ambulance from the Hatzolah ambulance corps arrived on the scene at about 8:23 p.m., followed by police and a City ambulance. The latter took Gavin Cato to Kings County Hospital, arriving at 8:32 p.m.; Cato was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Volunteers from a second Hatzolah ambulance helped Angela Cato, until a second City ambulance arrived and took her to the same hospital.Two attending police officers, as well as a technician from the City ambulance, directed the Hatzolah driver to remove Lifsh from the scene for his safety, while Gavin Cato was being removed from beneath the station wagon. According to The New York Times, more than 250 neighborhood residents, mostly black teenagers, many of whom were shouting "Jews! Jews! Jews!", jeered the driver of the car and turned their anger on the police.
Some members of the community were outraged because Lifsh was taken from the scene by a private ambulance service while city emergency workers were still trying to free the children who were pinned under the car. Some believed that Gavin Cato died because the Hatzolah ambulance crew was unwilling to help non-Jews. There was a rumor at the time that Lifsh was intoxicated. A breath alcohol test administered by police within 70 minutes of the crash indicated this was not the case.
Later that evening, as the crowds and rumors grew, people threw bottles and rocks. Someone reportedly shouted, "Let's go to Kingston Avenue and get a Jew!" A number of black youths set off westward toward Kingston Avenue, a street of predominantly Jewish residents several blocks away, vandalizing cars, and throwing rocks and bottles as they went.
Riots and murders
Murder of Yankel Rosenbaum
About three hours after the riots began, early on the morning of August 20, a group of approximately 20 young black men, with the incitement of Charles Price, who chanted "Let's go get a Jew," surrounded Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Jewish University of Melbourne student in the United States conducting research for his doctorate. They stabbed him several times in the back and beat him severely, fracturing his skull. Before being taken to the hospital, Rosenbaum identified 16-year-old Lemrick Nelson Jr. as his assailant in a line-up shown to him by the police. Rosenbaum died later that night because the doctor did not notice a stab wound in his chest. Nelson was charged with murder as an adult; he was acquitted at trial.Following that trial, Australian attorney Norman Rosenbaum became an advocate for his late brother, inspiring protests that included a shutdown of the Brooklyn Bridge and a demonstration at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.
In 1997, Nelson and Price were both convicted in federal court of violating Rosenbaum's civil rights resulting in his death. After the judge ruled that the two men had committed second degree murder, Nelson was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison, while Price was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison. However, that verdict was vacated on appeal due to unfairness in the jury selection process. A retrial was held in 2003. There were two primary issues of contention: whether Nelson's actions had been motivated by prejudice and whether Nelson's actions caused Rosenbaum's death.
Nelson later was convicted in federal court of violating Rosenbaum's civil rights. He eventually admitted that he had stabbed Rosenbaum but was acquitted of having caused Rosenbaum's death. Nelson received the statutory maximum of 10 years in prison. In 2002, Charles Price pleaded guilty to civil rights violations resulting in Rosenbaum's death. He was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison.
Rioting
For three days following the crash, numerous African Americans and Caribbean Americans of the neighborhood, joined by growing numbers of non-residents, rioted in Crown Heights. In the rioting of the ensuing three days, according to Edward Shapiro, many of the rioters "did not even live in Crown Heights."During the riots, Jewish people were injured, stores were looted, and cars and homes were damaged. The rioters identified Jewish homes by the mezuzot affixed to the front doors.
An additional 350 police officers were added to the regular duty roster on August 20 and were assigned to Crown Heights in an attempt to quell the rioting. After episodes of rock- and bottle-throwing involving hundreds of blacks and Jews, and after groups of blacks marched through Crown Heights chanting "No Justice, No Peace!", "Death to the Jews!", and "Whose streets? Our streets!", an additional 1,200 police officers were sent to confront rioters in Crown Heights.
On the third day of the disturbances, Al Sharpton and Sonny Carson led a march. The marchers proceeded through Crown Heights carrying antisemitic signs and burning an Israeli flag. Rioters threw bricks and bottles at police; shots were fired at police and police cars were pelted and overturned, including the Police Commissioner's car.
Riots escalated to the extent that a detachment of 200 police officers was overwhelmed and had to retreat for their safety. On August 22, over 1,800 police officers, including mounted and motorcycle units, had been dispatched to stop the attacks on people and property.
By the time the three days of rioting ended, 152 police officers and 38 civilians were injured, 27 vehicles were destroyed, seven stores were looted or burned, and 225 cases of robbery and burglary were committed. At least 129 arrests were made during the riots, including 122 blacks and seven whites. Property damage was estimated at one million dollars.