Schick Gets Socked; Cops Get Rocked

Hundreds of Hasidic Jews surrounded a Brooklyn police station Tuesday night, chanting "No justice - no peace," lighting bonfires, and eventually torching a police car.

They were protesting the arrest of Arthur Schick, owner of Schick's Bakery, who was pulled over for talking on his cellular phone while driving. According to police, Schick became uncooperative and was arrested. Two men who intervened as he was being put into a police van were also arrested.

Sariel Widawsky, co-owner of Schick's Bakery, said that as soon as Schick stepped out of his car, police officers pushed him up against the vehicle and placed his hands behind his back. "People saw what the police were doing to a 70-to-80-year-old man and started screaming at police to leave him alone," she told the New York Times.

"They literally threw him down into the van," Mr. Widawsky continued. "He fell on the first step. They picked him up and manhandled him into the van."

Police refused to comment on the accusations of excessive force.

News of the arrests spread quickly through the tight-knit Hassidic community, and residents took to the streets to protest.

Riot police officers dispersed the crowds, which were largely calm by 9:30 p.m.

Protesters created two large bonfires out of discarded cardboard, and later torched a police car.

That was from The Jerusalem Post.

Here's the NY Daily News:-

Two men tried to interfere with the bust - one allegedly jumping on a cop's back - and ended up under arrest themselves. Witnesses said enraged Hasidim surrounded a nearby squad car, and cops in riot gear quickly swarmed in.

As rumors spread through the crowd that Schick had been beaten, tensions escalated and hundreds of people in traditional black garb poured onto 16th Ave. from 46th to 50th Sts. They set fire to old magazines, fruit boxes and other trash up and down the avenue.

Firefighters raced to put out at least seven blazes and water down the streets.

Demonstrators smashed the windows of one police cruiser and torched another by throwing a gasoline-soaked rag into its backseat. A helicopter searchlight swept the street, and riot police formed lines along 16th Ave., hollering, "Back on the sidewalk!"

Here's the NYPost:-

At one point, more than 1,000 people flooded onto 16th Avenue between 45th and 48th streets in Borough Park, many pushing and shoving police.

Cops in riot gear struggled to hold back the mob as a firetruck shot water into the air to douse the many small trash fires.

Schick, 75, was talking on his cellphone as he got into his car and started driving away, prompting officers to stop him, the witnesses said.

A cop asked for his license, but Schick, who's hard of hearing, couldn't understand and got out of the car, the witnesses said.

But luckily:-

Schick, whose nephew Avi is an assistant to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, according to sources, was released late last night.

Wow. We could use some of these revived Maccabean freedom fighters in Israel, as long as we point them in the right direction.

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UPDATE
Click here for the existing video.

Kippah tip to Yeshivah World.