August 19, 2007
NEW HAVEN JOURNAL
Mixed Reviews for Neighbors in Arms
By THOMAS KAPLAN
New Haven
Eliezer Greer walked out of the Yeshiva of New Haven at dusk on Tuesday armed with a walkie-talkie in his hand and a loaded pistol at his side. Alfred Brooks Jr., 58, a former marine, was checking the batteries in his flashlight. Mr. Greer, 27, handed him the walkie-talkie.
Good news, Mr. Greer said: Their neighborhood, near Edgewood Park in the city’s western end, was quiet this evening. But he advised Mr. Brooks to keep an eye on the crowd of young people on Hobart Street.
For the past two months, Mr. Greer, Mr. Brooks and fellow volunteers in the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol — half of whom carry guns — have walked and biked through this neighborhood nightly to bring a sense of safety to an area they said had experienced an increase in crime and a decrease in police patrols.
Though Mayor John DeStefano Jr. has called the patrols a “recipe for disaster,” members of the group said that they had not once pulled out a gun, and the authorities acknowledged that violent crime had gone down in Edgewood since the patrols began.
“The last thing we want to do is draw a weapon,” said Mr. Greer, the founder of the defense patrol and the director of the Edgewood Neighborhood Association. “We have one agenda: clearing the neighborhood of thugs and getting people who work all day, pay mortgages, send kids to college, to enjoy the homes they’ve invested in.”
Earlier, Mr. Greer made his rounds with another member of the patrol, Avi Hack, 32. Their attire incorporated elements of Orthodox Judaism and a quasi police force: a skullcap; an undergarment with fringes, called tzitzit; and a black T-shirt that had “Edgewood Park Defense Patrol” on the back. Mr. Greer also carried a gun.
As Mr. Greer and Mr. Hack walked the streets, some lined with restored Victorian homes and others not so tidy, they searched for any signs of trouble.
Typically, patrol members call the police if something looks suspicious, although they decided that the youths and the car posed no threat. They spent most of their time chatting with passers-by in this diverse neighborhood, which has a large racial minority population in addition to many Jewish residents.
“Keep patrolling,” pleaded Lakeisha Singleton, a lawyer who had pulled her car to the side of the road to greet Mr. Greer. Her 1-year-old son, Michael, sat in a car seat in back. “We need you here,” Ms. Singleton said.
Though crime has been cut in half in New Haven over the last two decades and is down 10 percent over all this year from the year before, shootings are up about 50 percent this year, and Mr. Greer has called for the police chief, Francisco Ortiz, to resign.
Mr. Greer and his father, Rabbi Daniel Greer, dean of the yeshiva, have spent the last two decades restoring more than 40 dilapidated homes here and leasing them at no profit to low- and middle-income families. As a result, the neighborhood “has been on the upswing” since its days as a haunt for prostitutes in the 1980s, said Elizabeth McCormack, the neighborhood’s alderwoman.
But in recent years, the crime that once plagued the neighborhood began to return, and the Greers raised the idea of armed patrols after they said they got little help from the police. Crime worsened this spring, coming to a head when Mr. Greer’s brother, Dov, a rabbi like his father, was followed into his Edgewood home by several young men and assaulted.
A day later, the nightly patrols, from 6 to 10 p.m., began. At Mr. Greer’s request, the Guardian Angels, the volunteer crime-watch group based in New York, came and set up separate unarmed patrols.
But it is the weapons carried by Mr. Greer and other patrol members, not the patrols themselves, that have caused a stir. Nine of the patrol’s 18 members carry guns, which is legal in New Haven as long as the citizen has a state permit.
Mr. Greer said the patrol includes Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, and non-Jews. Five members are black and one Hispanic, he said. The group says that its racial makeup has eased fears that armed Jews would be chasing down black youths.
In an interview, Mr. Ortiz, the police chief, applauded Mr. Greer and others in Edgewood, saying their actions had spurred other areas to initiate neighborhood watches. And he said major criminal activity in the neighborhood had quieted since June.
But he said he did not support their carrying weapons.
At least one member of the patrol agreed with the chief: Mr. Brooks, who does not carry a gun. If patrol members carry firearms, he said, the criminals will counter with bigger ones.
On Tuesday, Mr. Brooks walked by Hobart Street, finding it relatively quiet. Though they have been patrolling for only two months, Mr. Brooks and other patrol members said residents were beginning to feel safe again.
“They have a right to,” Mr. Greer said. “And if the thugs won’t give us the right, and the police won’t, we’ll give ourselves the right.”
NEW HAVEN JOURNAL
Mixed Reviews for Neighbors in Arms
By THOMAS KAPLAN
New Haven
Eliezer Greer walked out of the Yeshiva of New Haven at dusk on Tuesday armed with a walkie-talkie in his hand and a loaded pistol at his side. Alfred Brooks Jr., 58, a former marine, was checking the batteries in his flashlight. Mr. Greer, 27, handed him the walkie-talkie.
Good news, Mr. Greer said: Their neighborhood, near Edgewood Park in the city’s western end, was quiet this evening. But he advised Mr. Brooks to keep an eye on the crowd of young people on Hobart Street.
For the past two months, Mr. Greer, Mr. Brooks and fellow volunteers in the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol — half of whom carry guns — have walked and biked through this neighborhood nightly to bring a sense of safety to an area they said had experienced an increase in crime and a decrease in police patrols.
Though Mayor John DeStefano Jr. has called the patrols a “recipe for disaster,” members of the group said that they had not once pulled out a gun, and the authorities acknowledged that violent crime had gone down in Edgewood since the patrols began.
“The last thing we want to do is draw a weapon,” said Mr. Greer, the founder of the defense patrol and the director of the Edgewood Neighborhood Association. “We have one agenda: clearing the neighborhood of thugs and getting people who work all day, pay mortgages, send kids to college, to enjoy the homes they’ve invested in.”
Earlier, Mr. Greer made his rounds with another member of the patrol, Avi Hack, 32. Their attire incorporated elements of Orthodox Judaism and a quasi police force: a skullcap; an undergarment with fringes, called tzitzit; and a black T-shirt that had “Edgewood Park Defense Patrol” on the back. Mr. Greer also carried a gun.
As Mr. Greer and Mr. Hack walked the streets, some lined with restored Victorian homes and others not so tidy, they searched for any signs of trouble.
Typically, patrol members call the police if something looks suspicious, although they decided that the youths and the car posed no threat. They spent most of their time chatting with passers-by in this diverse neighborhood, which has a large racial minority population in addition to many Jewish residents.
“Keep patrolling,” pleaded Lakeisha Singleton, a lawyer who had pulled her car to the side of the road to greet Mr. Greer. Her 1-year-old son, Michael, sat in a car seat in back. “We need you here,” Ms. Singleton said.
Though crime has been cut in half in New Haven over the last two decades and is down 10 percent over all this year from the year before, shootings are up about 50 percent this year, and Mr. Greer has called for the police chief, Francisco Ortiz, to resign.
Mr. Greer and his father, Rabbi Daniel Greer, dean of the yeshiva, have spent the last two decades restoring more than 40 dilapidated homes here and leasing them at no profit to low- and middle-income families. As a result, the neighborhood “has been on the upswing” since its days as a haunt for prostitutes in the 1980s, said Elizabeth McCormack, the neighborhood’s alderwoman.
But in recent years, the crime that once plagued the neighborhood began to return, and the Greers raised the idea of armed patrols after they said they got little help from the police. Crime worsened this spring, coming to a head when Mr. Greer’s brother, Dov, a rabbi like his father, was followed into his Edgewood home by several young men and assaulted.
A day later, the nightly patrols, from 6 to 10 p.m., began. At Mr. Greer’s request, the Guardian Angels, the volunteer crime-watch group based in New York, came and set up separate unarmed patrols.
But it is the weapons carried by Mr. Greer and other patrol members, not the patrols themselves, that have caused a stir. Nine of the patrol’s 18 members carry guns, which is legal in New Haven as long as the citizen has a state permit.
Mr. Greer said the patrol includes Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, and non-Jews. Five members are black and one Hispanic, he said. The group says that its racial makeup has eased fears that armed Jews would be chasing down black youths.
In an interview, Mr. Ortiz, the police chief, applauded Mr. Greer and others in Edgewood, saying their actions had spurred other areas to initiate neighborhood watches. And he said major criminal activity in the neighborhood had quieted since June.
But he said he did not support their carrying weapons.
At least one member of the patrol agreed with the chief: Mr. Brooks, who does not carry a gun. If patrol members carry firearms, he said, the criminals will counter with bigger ones.
On Tuesday, Mr. Brooks walked by Hobart Street, finding it relatively quiet. Though they have been patrolling for only two months, Mr. Brooks and other patrol members said residents were beginning to feel safe again.
“They have a right to,” Mr. Greer said. “And if the thugs won’t give us the right, and the police won’t, we’ll give ourselves the right.”
