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27 Elul 5759 - September 8, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Rabbonim Meet With NYC Police Head Over Boro Park Death

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Rabbinic leaders of the Borough Park community and several prominent askonim met on erev Shabbos parshas Nitzovim with New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir regarding the fatal shooting the previous Monday night of an emotionally disturbed man, Gideon (Gary) Busch, in the heart of the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. At the meeting, which took place at Kehal Anshei Sefard, the rabbonim articulated the Jewish community's concern about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Busch's death and drew pledges from Mr. Safir that investigations of the shooting will be thorough and that police procedures for dealing with emotionally disturbed citizens will be reviewed.

Among the religious leaders present were (in alphabetical order): Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah member Rabbi Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld (the Mattersdorfer Rov), Rabbi Eliezer Eichler (rov of Boyan), Rabbi Pesachia Fried (rav, Kehal Bnei Yisroel), Rabbi Chaim Elozor Friedman (rov, Congregation Bnai Osher), Rabbi Yonason Goldberger (rosh kollel of Bobov), Rabbi Shlomo Gross (the Belzer dayan), Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Halberstam (the Bobover Rebbe's son), Rabbi Eliezer Horowitz (rav, Agudath Israel of 14th Avenue), Rabbi Dovid Kviat (chairman of the Synagogue Conference of Agudath Israel and rov, Agudath Israel 18th Avenue), Rabbi Yaakov Ledereich (rav, Karlin-Stolin), Rabbi Dovid Dov Meisels (rov, Congregation Yetev Lev, Satmar), Rabbi Yaakov Perlow (Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudath Israel of America), Rabbi Yaakov Pollack (rov, Kehal Shomrei Emunah) and Rabbi Yechiel Mechel Steinmetz (rov of Congregation Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Square).

Also present at the meeting were New York City Councilman Noach Dear, Mr. Yussi Rieder (chairman of the Boro Park Jewish Community Council), Rabbi Yechiel Kaufman (rav, Kehal Anshei Sefard and the council's executive director), Mr. Isaac Stern (a senior coordinator for Hatzoloh), Rabbi Dovid Greenzweig (of Bobov), Agudath Israel of America associate general counsel Mordechai Avigdor, Agudath Israel vice president for community affairs Shmuel Lefkowitz and Rabbi Avrohom Nisan Perl, the executive secretary of Agudath Israel's Conference of Synagogue Rabbonim.

At the meeting's start, Mr. Safir was introduced by Rabbi Kaufman, who chaired the gathering. The commissioner described Mr. Busch's actions and the course of Monday night's tragic events to the best of the department's knowledge. Rabbi Perlow was the first to respond and, after thanking the commissioner for the good relations New York City police have forged with the Orthodox Jewish community and noting that no one was disputing the assessment of Mr. Busch's mental state at the time of his killing, HaRav Perlow asserted that there was nevertheless an understandable concern among the public that the situation could have been handled differently by the police. He also called attention to reports that several eyewitnesses had taken issue with police accounts of the killing.

Mr. Safir noted that the investigations into the shooting would proceed apace and in the end clarify whether or not the police had acted properly. New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's chief of staff, Tony Carbonetti, who was also present at the meeting, added the administration's hope that all eyewitnesses to the shooting would come forward, and offered its assurance that the account of every credible witness would be taken very seriously.

One rumor laid to rest at the meeting concerned reports that Hatzoloh workers had not been allowed to work on Mr. Busch immediately when they arrived on the scene. Mr. Stern, who had interviewed members of the Hatzoloh team summoned to the scene of the shooting, assured those gathered that the Hatzoloh members had immediate and complete access to Mr. Busch, though there was, tragically, nothing they could do to save him.

Rabbi Meisels and several of the other rabbonim present also stressed the importance of ascertaining whether New York's police were adequately trained in dealing with the emotionally disturbed. Though the officers involved in the shooting had called a special police detail specializing in such cases, by the time it arrived Mr. Busch had already been shot. It was in response to those comments that Mr. Safir pledged a review of police procedures and training.

Rabbi Goldberger said that it is felt incumbent upon the rabbis, to whom the community looks for guidance and example, to see to it that justice is fully served -- in this case through a fair, unhindered and thorough investigation. The day before the meeting, in response to organized efforts to use the shooting incident to demonstrate against the New York Police Department, a written "urgent plea" was issued by Rabbis Eichler, Halberstam, Gross, Horowitz, Kviat, Meisels and Perlow, along with Rabbi Avrohom Yehoshua Heshel Bick, Rabbi Tzvi Halpern, Rabbi Yehuda Tirnauer and Rabbi Moshe Wolfson, calling on "all members of the Boro Park community who fear the word of G-d to stay away from any demonstrations and chillul Hashem" and decrying the methods of "militants, which [are] not the way of the Torah, and not the way of peace."

In a letter hand-delivered to Commissioner Safir the day before the Friday morning meeting, Agudath Israel executive vice president for government and public affairs Chaim Dovid Zwiebel informed the Commissioner that while most Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers "recognize that, in the large picture of things, the NYPD is their friend and protector" and "that their neighborhoods have become safer during the tenure of the incumbent administration," there is nevertheless "a widespread sense that something went terribly wrong in how the police officers handled this particular incident."

"We are asking our constituents to withhold judgment about the precise circumstances of the case," Mr. Zwiebel continued, "until the matter has been fully investigated internally by the NYPD and externally by the Brooklyn District Attorney," but "the questions raised by this incident are not only questions of fact, but also of policy" with regard to such "specialized types of situations."


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