Crown Heights Brooklyn, NY August 19, 1991 Riots (WWOR-TV NEWS 9) Mayor David Dinkins

TIMELINE: How the 1991 Crown Heights riots unfolded
A station wagon driven by Yosef Lifsh, hit another car and careened onto the sidewalk at 8:21 p.m. Monday, August 19, 1991.

Lifsh was part of a three-car motorcade carrying the now-deceased spiritual leader of the Lubavitcher Hasidic community, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, home from a weekly police-escorted visit family at their Queens gravesites.

The station wagon crushed two black children, 7-year-old cousins Gavin and Angela Cato.

Within minutes, an ambulance from the Hasidic-run Hatzolah ambulance service and two from the city's Emergency Medical Service arrived.

An angry crowd gathered. Cops radioed for backup, reporting that the station wagon driver and passengers were being assaulted. Officer Nona Capace ordered the Hatzolah ambulance to remove the Hasidic men from the scene.

The children went by separate city ambulances to Kings County Hospital. Gavin Cato was pronounced dead; his cousin survived. A rumor quickly spread that the Hatzolah ambulance crew had ignored the dying black child in favor of treating the Jewish men.

Ignited by the false story, resentments exploded into violence. Groups of young black men threw rocks, bottles and debris at police, residents and homes.

Five blocks away from the crash scene, at 11:20 p.m, 29-year-old Australian scholar Yankel Rosenbaum was attacked by a dozen or more black youths. He was stabbed four times. Cops quickly collared Lemrick Nelson, 16, who was identified by Rosenbaum as his attacker.

Rosenbaum was expected to recover. Mayor David Dinkins, New York's first black mayor, visited the hospital bed. But by 2:30 Tuesday morning, the Australian was dead because the Kings County staff overlooked one of the knife wounds.

Street violence raged for three days. On Thursday, cops finally restored order. Ultimately, 43 civilians and 152 police officers were injured.

After several trials, Lemrick Nelson was eventually convicted of violating Rosenbaum's civil rights and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Despite living side by side, Hasidic Jews, African Americans, and people from the Caribbean in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, rarely socialized before 1991. The groups occupied separate cultural worlds, and a climate of mutual suspicion and tension prevailed. On 19 August 1991, after a Jewish driver tragically killed a young black child, Gavin Cato, anti-Semitic violence erupted, and African Americans attacked Jews, Jewish property, and city police. Later that evening a mob of about fifteen African Americans shouting "Kill the Jew" attacked Yankel Rosenbaum, a native of Australia. Bearded and wearing a yarmulke, Rosen-baum was beaten and stabbed, but before he bled to death he identified his assassin as sixteen-year-old Lemrick Nelson. Three more days of rioting ensued.

Nelson was acquitted of murder in a state court in 1992, and he later celebrated his acquittal with some of the jurors. In 1994 the federal government charged Nelson and Charles Price, who was accused of inciting the attack, with violating Rosenbaum's civil rights. Convicted as an adult, an unrepentant Nelson received 235 months in prison, while Price received 260 months. New York City then settled a lawsuit by several Crown Heights residents for $1.1 million.

The official state report on the riots criticized New York City Mayor David Dinkins for his inaction during the riots; Dinkins later lost his 1993 reelection bid to Rudolph Giuliani. Community leaders, a community mediation center, and numerous community groups subsequently sponsored integrated activities in efforts to reduce cultural divisions in Crown Heights.

Bibliography

Conaway, Carol B. "Crown Heights: Politics and Press Coverage of the Race War That Wasn't." Polity 32 (Fall 1999): 93118.

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[GoBlackwater]

My goodness, I can't believe 20 years went by. I remember seeing this on the news, and it seems like yesterday. There are so many rumors and conflicting stories surrounding this incident, that even to this day I don't know who to believe. I live closeby, but I wasn't there.

[P1B1U1H1]

@dandebonaire The grand jury did not say the driver killed the child after careful examination.  All you want is to kill Jews. Shame on you.

[P1B1U1H1]

@dandebonaire Who threw everything at the police? Who destroyed all the property?

[strong8action]

mega kikes control JEW york city, home of Israeli Zionism, and bolshevism

[Addiskrilla]

OH MY GOD.....YALL NEEDA STOP THIS JEW-HATIN THANG!!!!!

[1LonePuma]

These attacks are outrageous, but not unexpected. These attacks are intended to demoralize and humiliate citizens, while taking control of our civil liberties. The despotic Bilderberg group is behind it all for the emanate takeover for the New World Order. Wait until you see American's being sent to FEMA camps across America! The plan is to exterminate the undesirables, population control and those who oppose them! Watch “Fall of The Republic” on YouTube!

[1LonePuma]

The citizen’s of the free world must unite and stop the despotic Bilderber group and its members or fall to the secrecy of their planed tyranny! A global takeover, facilitating the New World Order! This includes a diabolical systematic extermination of millions, the depopulating of Americans using the many FEMA camps across America, as was in the days of Nazi Germany! Watch "Fall Of The Republic" on YouTube and see the horrifying events coming after you!

[dandebonaire]

@Sexysmurf77 SO WHAT???? You think only Jews were ever targeted for extermination? More non Jews died in that war-- at Hitler's hands--- ye they are dismissively labeled as "others."