Racial tensions in Crown Heights, and the Shmira, the Hasidic civilian police force, seems to be at the center of it. Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn DA, is going after them:
“You can’t have a group, whether it’s the Bloods, Crips or Shmira, acting like vigilantes,” Mr. Hynes told The New York Jewish Week last month.Pretty stunning comparison, and especially bold in light of the publication he was talking to. But I find it rather refreshing to see an elected going after a group that raises some pretty sticky ethical questions and tends to racialize its rhetoric.
