The Truth About The Jewish Vigilante Group That Patrols New York

Publish date: 2024-05-07

The story didn't end there. The NYPD identified a man connected with Shmira as the man who beat up Charles, as explained by Times of Israel. However, the man fled to Israel in the middle of the investigation. In 2011, Israel agreed to send him back to New York for trial. The man pleaded guilty for assault in 2014, according to CrownHeights.info, and prosecutors tossed out the hate crime charge. 

While the Shmira case went extreme, this is not the first time that these ultra-Orthodox vigilante groups have been criticized. While some outside criticism of the Shomrim has, sadly, veered rather quickly into antisemitic dog whistles, internal criticism has occurred as well: in 2016, Michael Lesher wrote for the Forward, calling upon his fellow Orthdox Jews to speak out against the Shomrim, writing that, "For too long, we've allowed a system of Jewish-run patrols to dominate the heavily Orthodox Jewish enclaves of Brooklyn, usurping the role of the official police force (with key support from vote-hungry politicians), despite their record of violence toward non-Jews." The New York Times reports that Shomrim groups have been accused of bullying, intimidation, and bribing the police for gun permits. On the other hand, Shomrim groups also can serve as useful figures in their communities, doing tasks like pursuing burglars and finding missing Alzheimer's patients. 

In a city like New York, where people live so closely together, tensions often break. It's a delicate balance for everyone in the neighborhood to keep. 

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