Jason Horowitz is hitting the pavement in Borough Park today.
He called in with this report:
In the storefront Yidel’s Grocery on 12th Avenue between 48th and 50th streets in Borough Park,
there’s a photo of a guy wearing a varsity jacket with a letter on it, no yarmulke, and he’s about to light a bunch of posters on fire. All of these 13- and 14-year-old Orthodox kids are circled around him, eyes agog, looking pretty psyched.
In the neighborhood, the photo, and the amateur video from which it’s taken, are in high demand. The idea is that opportunistic criminals who aren’t orthodox Jews are responsible for much of the mayhem on Tuesday night.
Boro Park councilman Simcha Felder told The Politicker: “It is irrelevant to me.” It was “inexcusable” that young people in his neighborhood watched and egged on the riot.
“I think there are a number of tapes floating around now,” he said. But he also said he thought it unlikely they’d surface. Even if they do show non-Jews lighting fires at the riot, they also show large groups of young Orthodox men comporting themselves in a generally ungentlemanly manner.