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."
