Brooklyn, NY – There are new concerns surrounding the planned installation of 150 security cameras in the Boro Park and Midwood neighborhoods. The proposal for security cameras in the area came in the wake of the brutal murder of eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky last summer. An image of Kletzky walking was captured by a private security camera. The footage proved critical in finding and apprehending Leiby’s murderer, Levi Aron. The video system is intended to “provide blanket surveillance.”
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The Forward writes (http://bit.ly/NoKnJX) that Jacob Daskal, coordinator of the Boro Park Shomrim, has raised concerns that the video surveillance system should be not be immediately available to law enforcement officials. Daskal said such access would hinder the ability of community members to keep specific crimes within the confines of the community.
Daskal cites domestic violence as one such instance, where police may still arrest a woman’s husband even after she chooses not press charges because they have access to surveillance video showing a crime had been committed. Police would still need to obtain a court order before gaining access to the private footage. “The camera is very good for the community, but if it’s a private thing,” Daskal said. “If it’s a public thing, it might hurt a person who doesn’t want to arrest her husband for domestic violence.”
He is advocating for an agreement where state funding is granted to certain yeshivas to enable them to install their own private security system—a system which police cannot access. “I am trying to change the system so that it shouldn’t go to a central thing,” Daskal said. There is no word on whether Daskal is making any headway.
The 150 cameras are expected to be installed by November.
This is nuts. Shomrim are opposed to police having instant access to security cameras (which could have saved the life of Leiby Kletzky), because they don’t want wife beaters to be arrested! Is this for real?
So the shomrim already has the money from government (1 million?) but it won’t implement the system as promised because there are crimes in BP that the police shouldn’t know about?
Perhaps there are some examples that Daskal could provide? and justify?
If the crimes really aren’t crimes- why not just educate the local precinct that way the beat cops won’t think that these are crimes either and save everyone time.
hands up if you think that this is RIFE with sketchy and potentially unethical concerns!
Nothing here passes the standard smell test
100% right!! That’s’all u need here in bp, to have every inch and move monitored. Domestic violence is just a professional example but there’s’so much more to it.
Something doesn’t make sense here, oh wait, this article is written by the ‘anti charaidy’ Forward, now it makes sense…
You gotta be kidding me!!
The husband just has to threaten his wife he’ll beat her even more if she presses charges and then Shomrim hides the evidence.
This is Bootleg, and the Shomrim know it. Any crime commited in public should be acted upon by the public agency (the NYPD) which is supposed to protect the public. No Way! Do I want the Boro Park Shomrim reviewing potentially private video.
Am I missing something or is he trying to say that the community should hide instances of Domestic Violence? Since when is it Ok in our community to have domestic violence? Please refer me to the source…
If someone’s going to beat his wife in public, why are we even thinking twice about having him arrested? Imagine what he does to her in private!
If someone commits domestic violence he should be arrested. The only reason the wife might not press charges is because she is probably afraid. I think that you have nothing to hide, why not have the cameras?
This is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Let every husband know that there are no second chances for domestic violence. Dov Hikind must immeditely get the cameras to a reputable organization not one that plays politics with jewish lives!
Once again he has put his foot in his mouth. He and whoever made him a spokesman should be fired. He makes the whole organization and community look bad. He has fed right into the critics of Shomrim. He should immediately issue a retraction and find a way to explain himself out of this mess.
I agree. Would not trust law enforcement to have access to blanket security cameras in our area. Just like you wouldn’t want law enforcement to have access to cameras in your house unless you made the decision to invite them to take a look. Let’s have monitoring by Shomrim and use the video for law enforcement only if the need arises. The problem with this is that we are getting public funding. We should reverse the public funding and raise private funds so that law enforcement will not receive automatic access.
I agree with him 100%! To all those self hated Jews who love the “so-called American justice system” read the details of the plea of Levi Aron due in court today, no one is as guilty as he is, but he gets a plea of 40 to life… all cause he is “changing his plea to be guilty”… Looks to me; it’s handled like a business decision rather than justice…
That is the most moronic thing I have ever heard. Jewish women suffer terribly from domestic violence; these women live in fear of husbands – Let the cameras roll.
mr.daskal…eleemuly moyrueh shel malchis,ish veish chaim beeluee,,,,
I agree with Daskal but from a different angle. My concern is privacy. Do you really want th entire community’s comings an goings available for viewing. Think Gestapo and the notion of it can’t happen here.
No way absolutely not
the problem is two fold
first it is funded by public money therefore it cannot be private and the police should have 24/7 access or have the video feed to then directly
if shomrin or whoever will only have access then as we know from history thing will be covered up and nothing will change. what will they do ask a rov in every case if they can give the video to the police. and if a connected person gets caught molesting a child do anybody really think they will cooperate?
Well first of all they have to be able to see footage right away in order to save a life. Second, if its paid by state funding the only people who will get access is the police.
Wow, we have chutzpeh.
Asking the state to pay for the cameras and not letting them access it ?
Are we
I can understand that one is against cameras for security reasons, but this selfish argument ? And who says that I trust the Shomrim more than the courts?
It’s scary how much negative news we generate lately.
This Jewish group that got the funding for the cameras – they’re likened to the wolf guarding the sheep, in my view. Dina d’malchusa dina. And besides, my rebbe taught me how dare you raise a hand to a woman who’s your wife! You do the crime, you do the time. That’s the only way to get through to those behaimas. They need a class in anger management, as well. Any other way to handle them is wimping out. Besides, we really know why they don’t want to go immediately to the police and Charles Hines’ office. We’re not that dumb. It’s so that the perpetrators get protected and the victims will be denied the right to use the video as evidence by this Jewish group.
the article does not directly quote daskal accept for the last sentence which is more vauge.that being said,an individual who is deeply involved in helping frum molestation victims told me that the shomrim had knowledge of levi aron for hours before they contacted nypd.their reasoning was that this is a frum person and they were trying to solve it internally.i hope it’s not true.
I say if you have nothing to hide, let them watch you all the time. But, Shomrim, should not have first crack at it so they can decide what goes to police or not. That smells from poilitics.
He’s right, Just imagine if the Gov’t would get hold of a tape of Dovid Hamelech and Bat-Sheva, they would punish when Hashem was Moichel.
huh, take government money and want it to be a private money. It is not domestic violence as shomrim is using as an excuse. The last line says it all. The yeshivas don’t want the police to see their cameras for reasons of perhaps keeping certain instances a secret. Yes, the community came out in great numbers and yes shomrim are a valuable part of “our” system. However, law enforcement is just that
i guess that woever does not wamt cameras in bp did not learn from the kletzky story. perhaps whats there to loose
I think Yanky Daskal has a good case against The Forward for slander. Why believe every stupidity they write? They go out of their way to malign heimishe organizations that provide tremendous benefits to the community. The Forward goes out of its way to find ways to present any negative bias against such organizations, whether true or concocted. Shame on them!
Lets just give up our privacy and all our rights so government can track every move, take all our money and dictate everything we eat, talk or read and lets just “trust” them. After all we have nothing to hide, so lets trust them.
Who needs a jury system? Who needs elections, lets just trust!
Calm down everybody here, aint there any intelligent people commenting on this blog? Don’t u know the history of the smear and slander of this anti religious ‘Forwards’ ? I’ve got a bridge to sell u !! Do u really think Shomrim/Daskal have any interest in protecting abusers? And if they do, would they make these comments public??
These ‘frye’ Forwards people can’t stand how there once flourishing newspaper shrinked to a mere 4-8 pages while the charaidy journalism field keeps multiplying on a yearly basis! (Between yiddish-english-hebrew there are about 12-14 weekly newspapers 100-250 pages each and growing plus about 8-10 monthly magazines, and growing, didn’t even realize, huh?)
As our community multiplies, so are they diminishing till there is nothing left from them.
Somehow this “fake-foney-full of hate” article reminds me of a dying animal grasping for air…