For the third time in four weeks, a member of the Jewish community was viciously assaulted on Motzei Shabbos in the heart of Lakewood
The victim, a 39-year-old “Meshulach”, had pulled his car over to the side of the road on Route 9, near Welsh Farms, and was looking for something in his car. Suddenly, two African American thugs armed with a wooden stick (POSSIBLY a bat), smashed his car window, hit him in his face, stole his laptop, and some money from him. The two attackers then fled into the night.
Lakewood Hatzolah transported him to the Jersey Shore Trauma Center, where he remains hospitalized, and detectives from the Lakewood PD are investigating the case.
Being that this is Lakewood’s third assault in four weeks, and no arrests have been made, YWN reached out to Lakewood Deputy Mayor, Meir Lichtenstein and Lakewood Committeeman Menashe Miller to hear what they had to say.
“The police department is working on the case”, Lichtenstein said, “but we both strongly feel that “Civilian Patrol” would be a major asset to the Township.”
Both Lichtenstein and Miller understand that there has been resistance in the police department to a Civilian Patrol idea, and said that “we strongly encourage the leadership & the rest of the Lakewood PD – to work closely with those who are gracious enough to volunteer their time to help keep our streets safer.”
(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN)
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11 Responses
It’s quite natural for local police departments to feel that volunteer “civilian patrols” are unnecessary. Afterall, the mere presence of such a patrol suggests that the police aren’t doing their job. I think what you need to do here is to have the local PD meet with the leadership of some of the more effective Shomrim groups, like that in Boro Park, that have the full cooperation of local police precincts and in fact have been awarded by the NYC Mayor, the Boro President, etc., for “assisting” the difficult job of the police. When the Lakewood PD see that this is an accepted and perfectly legitimate program, I suspect that there will be less resistence.
Its nice to see that “unzere” are finally beginning to wake up.
Yes a civilian patrol would be great,however isn’t it the police that are supposed to protect its citizens?First and formost there should be a call for more police protection and enforcement. After that is in check we can have civilan patrol watching the streets. Civilan patrol can not and should not have to take the place of the police.
i think we pay enough real estate taxes instead going for school so much we should alocate some money for more protection from private companys
and there should be more lights on the street some streets are very dark and it is very dificulte to see any suspicouse people
Two candidates, Sean Gertner and Steve Langert, ran for the township committee a few years ago. One of their campaign issues was that the LPD is understaffed based on the ratio of officers to citizens. The VAAD, for reasons known only to themselves, chose not to support them in the general election. They backed the incumbants which caused the status quo to be maintained. Chief Rob has been a friend to the community, but he can’t work miracles. The LPD needs a Shomrim like group to help be its eyes in the street. The cops themselves say they’re understaffed, especially at night, but are against a civilian patrol. Chaos will continue to reign until the cops put their egos aside and do what’s right for the citizens they’ve sworn to protect.
Although I do believe a civilian patrol would help, I am unsure if it will ever be like the NY shomrim as I think a citizen arrest is not possible in NJ. I may be wrong. Another reason it may not work is because the top brass in the PD have failed to be open minded to the success with block watches and shomrim.
On another note I personally spoke with the LP detective and the investigating officer from the ocean county sheriffs department and they were trying their utmost to collect evidence to possibly apprehend these thugs. They were not taking this lightly at 2AM last night.
PS this mesulach was extremely severely beaten with a bat in his head. They were vicious animals and deserve to be sent to jail for many years.
And then they want to know why ther is so much tension between the two comunitys in lakewood well this I’m shure has somthing to do with it
How about the people in Lakewood go out and get permits to carry handguns! NJ isn’t as strict as NY, and it is actually not that hard to get one. training in the use of a pistol is relatively easy, and can save lives. and for all those that will say it isn’t the “ways” of jews to be armed, you are wrong. you can look as far back as Nach to see that jews carried swords, which was the defensive weapon of the time, and the fact that there are myriad of halachos of self defense, up to and including killing an intruder, means that jews have a right and a possible obligation to be able to defend themselves, and that can only be done in this day in age with a gun. joining the NRA, getting knowledgeable of gun ownership rights, and getting a license to carry are all steps that can secure a safe future for residents of Lakewood.
they should of had lakewood shomrim taking care of this type of situation
What I see as a real problem is that the police are under maned and under equiped. The have too few officers on the midnight patrol who can not be everywhere at once. They also suffer from a lack of logical equipment. They are not allowed to have dogs for bombs, tracking, or drugs. And the use of the county dog is a complete waste of time by the time the dog arrives. There are members of our community who continually do as little as possible to aid the police when an incident occures. Wake up, if someone breaks into your house on shabbos and you hear them call the police. What would happen if a member of your family walked in on burglar and was injured or killed or your neighbor is killed when that burglar goes next door. Protection of life is number 1 not keeping shabbos. That being said I feel there should seriously be much less resistance from members of our community towards the town getting a K-9 unit. It is only for your own protection.