Serial Borough Park Child Rapist Hunt Stalled – Haredim Refuse To Cooperate With Police

The haredim who refuse to cooperate with police include the hasidic parents of a 14 year old victim.

Why won't haredim cooperate?

Mesira. And they do not want to destroy the shidduch (arranged marriage) prospects for their other children.

The New York Post reports:

SICKO SEARCH STALLED
HASIDIC KIN MUM
By REUVEN BLAU

Detectives fear a serial sex predator is stalking Borough Park, and are frustrated by the lack of cooperation they're getting from one victim's family, The Post has learned.

The Hasidic family of a 14-year-old girl sexually assaulted on Aug. 3 is not helping detectives hunting her attacker, according to a police source familiar with the investigation.

"The detectives have hit a stone wall right now," the source said. "Beyond a basic interview, they are not getting any cooperation."

The family appears concerned about the girl's identity getting out, which would greatly limit her chances of eventually getting married within the tight-knit religious culture, community leaders and neighbors said last week.

Based on DNA evidence, police have connected the attack to the predator who snatched a 4-year-old Hasidic girl on July 16, 2007.

Detectives suspect that the fiend is a serial sex attacker, and that other victims may not have come forward, according to the police source.

"Serial rapists by definition don't stop at one or two," the insider said.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the area, acknowledged the sociological hurdles the police are facing.

"Unfortunately, the shame and all these other concerns come in the picture," he told The Post. "But this is something that we have to overcome in our communities.

"Sometimes these concerns, real or perceived, overpower the need to protect the community from evil criminal individuals. For someone not to cooperate verges on a violation of law."

The police were careful not to identify the 4-year-old victim last summer, but many in the close Hasidic community quickly found out.

"Everybody knew everything about everything," one neighbor said last week. "There were text messages sent out with the exact location."

After both assaults, the NYPD quickly parked a mobile command unit in the area and added foot patrols.
Over the past several weeks, the department has also positioned sporadic roadblocks near where the girls were snatched and found.

[Hat Tip: Michelle.]

Comments

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

which would greatly limit her chances of eventually getting married within the tight-knit religious culture

Oh no! She won't have the zechus of marrying into a pedophile tolerating community!

I hope the DCFS has the power to get this kid away from these kooks! Her home life is not really that different than a kid forced to marry a 47-year-old on some "religious" compound in Utah.

[michelle]

B"H

The problem is not the parents of the girl. The problem is the wagging tongues of the community.

What a shame when the family fears their own community more than they fear a sexual predator. This is a G-d fearing community?

Don't they know that each time they open their mouth, they buy more freedom for a sicko, destroy an innocent victim, and keep justice from being served?

No one should fear cooperating with police. It is the evil of gossip that is allowing a monster to prey on innocent children.

Unless you have constructive information for the police, keep your mouth shut. If you have constructive information for the police, tell them and ONLY them. Don't keep information to yourself. Let the police decide whether it is important.

If someone tries to talk to you about the attacks and it looks like gossip--it probably is. Don't listen. Don't read their e-mail or their text message. Warn the person away. Tell them gossip is destroying innocent girls, the community, and probably themselves.

We must stop this monster.

[me]

yeah, you know, at this point I'm pretty burned on not Torah, but the communities that are iconified as exemplars of it, whatever religious sphere they come from. It's beyond defending as "merely human". and that is no defense when what is supposed to be the defining difference between what we do and how we do it is the claim that Torah is something NOT [MERELY] HUMAN. Torah, I can stomach. Jews that follow it, collectively, it's going. What is the fate, by [present...] judgement of one who believes in one 'marc shapiro' sense or another in yud gimmel ikkarim, but is no longer capable of full ritual complaince or collective engagement?

[Anonymous]

Ok. Here's the truth.

The perp is Archie Bunker.

He left a pair of his dirty underware behind.

They evacuated the neighborhood.

He smells so bad.

Go Archie.

[steve]

I don't think the issue here is mesira, as they are not sure if the perp is Jewish. I just think that they don't want any more publicity from this incident and they'd rather it just go away. Unfortunately, most child sexual abuse cases are handled the same way and are never reported to the authorities.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

The problem is not the parents of the girl.

I disagree. The problem is with the parents who refuse to protect their daughter. Imagine how this girl is going to feel when she matures and realizes that her parents did nothing to bring this criminal to justice and allowed him to stay free in the neighborhood.

As for the community, what can one say? It's a sick community that blames a girl for the rest of her life for being the victim of a sexual attack. And the parents aren't much better -- talk about misplaced priorities.

[Rachel Batya]

--As for the community, what can one say? It's a sick community that blames a girl for the rest of her life for being the victim of a sexual attack. And the parents aren't much better -- talk about misplaced priorities.--

Well said, NU. If the parents can't stand up and demand that their community rush to the support of a child who has been victimized, the parents are as much at fault as the community.

Are the parents cowed? Are they intimidated? Of course. But what about the child? Are they thinking about how terrified she is--and how ashamed? The fear and the shame will only get worse and will destroy her life if the parents and the community don't come together and try to get justice for her.

They've got the opportunity to do a beautiful kiddush Hashem here and they are squandering it badly.

If you want to hear a mother with the right approach to dealing with the abuse of a child, listen to Dov Hikind's interview with the Satmar woman whose son is bringing a lawsuit. She is 100% behind her son, even though he has gone "off the derech" because of what happened to him.

[Bartley Kulp]

I agree with the first post. They are worried that her marriage prospects will be limited. Who cares if another innocent girl gets raped G-d forbid or even murdered.

I always had a hard time relating to the reality of child sacrifices. Now we see it with all of the child molestation cover-up bullshit in our community. The fires of Molech are burning strong today.

[Jerome Soller]

Archie,
I find it amazing that you have a cult following, like this idiot "Anonymous." I am jealous, but not necessarily of the quality of your "fans" or their spelling and grammar skills.

Jerome

[Anonymous]

Archie,
I find it amazing that you have a cult following, like this idiot "Anonymous." I am jealous, but not necessarily of the quality of your "fans" or their spelling and grammar skills.

Jerome

Jerome, can you hear the Squishy sound when Archie walks by?

Just put out plastic if he walks into your home.

His Depends leak.

[R]

All they are doing is making sure more children get attacked or even murdered.
Why aren't their so called Rabbis speaking out against this sort of silence?
It's all these sheep listen to.

[Anon]

Shmarya this is a new low for you. Attacking the victim of sexual assault. Nowhere in the article does it say that the reluctance to cooperate has anything to do with mesirah. The reluctance is due to concerns about social stigma. The reluctance to cooperate with rape investigation due to such concerns has been reported among all segments of the population. The concern is probably much greater among orthodox jews but it is not unique to orthodox jews. While I believe that this girls parents are making the wrong choice (and I also believe that the community should be educated so that this stigma is eliminated or at least reduced) it is a real concern. This girl's parents are within their rights to consider the welfare of their daughter who was already victimized once.

[tzaddik ben Torah]

They can't win. If and when the criminal is caught,his goon friends and relatives will terrorize other Chassidim.The police do not like to deal with the chassidim because they do not understand each other's form of "English" and the chassidik women are very prolific gossippers(esp the older ones).They have nothing else to discuss and each one wants the honor of being te first to know.and inform their friends.

[Shmarya]

Shmarya this is a new low for you. Attacking the victim of sexual assault.

Idiot. The victim is a child. I'm attacking the parents and the rabbis.

[Anon]

--Idiot. The victim is a child. I'm attacking the parents and the rabbis.--

Moron. The parents are operating under the impression (mistaken, in my view - though their concerns are real) that they are protecting the victim. This has nothing to do with mesirah or any other halachic considerations. I don't care if you are attacking the victim or her parents - this is a new low for you. Attacking the parents in this instance is despicable. As for the rabbis, there is no indication that they have anything to do with this.

[Anon]

Scotty, were you abused as a child?

[Shmarya]

Let's try this again.

1. A young girl is raped. Her parents will not cooperate with police because they fear cooperation will hurt the girls chances for getting a good marriage partner down the road.

(And, if the suspect is Jewish, the issue of mesira comes into play, as well.)

2. While these parents "protect" their child's future, other young girls are in danger and may be raped.

3. Halakha mandates stopping the rapist and forbids standing by while others are hurt or endangered, as does common sense and simple morality.

4. Yet you believe it is wrong to attack these parents for their inaction and their rabbis for their silence and inaction.

5. If the halakhot violated by the parents and the rabbis were more evident to you – violating Shabbat, say, or selling treife meat – you would not be judging them as favorably as you are now.

[Yochanan Lavie]

This resembles the Islamic morality code, where it's the rape victim's "fault" that she was attacked. An "honor killing" of the female ensues, usually by an elder brother.

Contrast this to tanach, where Schechem, the perp, was killed by Dina's brothers. ("The Red Tent" notwithstanding. And then, they were castigated for being bloodthirsty!

Will chareidi "honor killings" happen one day? I hope not. We already have the burqa rebbetzin.

[Anon]

Lets try this again.

1. A young girl is raped. Her parents will not cooperate with police because they are concerned about the stigma that will attach to their daughter. There is also no indication about what cooperations they are refusing to give - are they refusing to work with a police artist in private to create a picture of the rapist, are they refusing to allow their daughter to pick a suspect out of a line up or are they refusing to allow their daughter to testify in court? My guess is that they are also concerned about the effect on their daughter of having to relive this crime and potentially having to face the perpetrator in court.

2. Mesirah has nothing to do with this. As you admitted in your comment, but conveniently left out of your post, there is no indication that the suspect is even jewish. Even if he was, I'm pretty certain that every competent rabbi would rule that mesirah is a non-issue here.

3. The parents are looking to protect their daughter. Neither you nor I know the specifics of this story and the girl's condition. While I think their decision is wrong, they are right to consider what is best for their daughter - in fact they would be bad parents if they did not.

4. I agree that the greater good mandates that catching this rapist before he rapes again is far more important than any inconvenience to the victim arising from cooperating with the police, however, I'm pretty sure that the parents' primary concern is the welfare of their daughter - as would be the concern of pretty much every parent.

To be clear, I think their decision is wrong. But this girl's parents have problably gone to hell and back since their daughter was raped and have had to make some very tough decisions. Whether I agree with them or not, to demonize them and accuse them of not allowing their daughter to cooperate because of some trumped up reason that you concocted is despicable. No matter how you try to spin this, it will still be despicable. If you had any remaining self-respect (something that I doubt), you would immediately delete or revise this post.

[Anon]

--This resembles the Islamic morality code, where it's the rape victim's "fault" that she was attacked. An "honor killing" of the female ensues, usually by an elder brother.--

You are making such a quantum leap of logic here, that I think you lost the logic part somewhere along the way. The stigma they are supposedly concerned about has nothing to do with faulting the victim. While I wouldn't write this off, I would have some concerns about dating a girl if I new she was raped or abused as a child. Such events can have serious psycological repurcussions that extend into adulthood. (Of course if she was drop dead gorgeous I might be persuaded to overlook this issue. :) )

[Shmarya]

I agree that the greater good mandates that catching this rapist before he rapes again is far more important than any inconvenience to the victim arising from cooperating with the police, however, I'm pretty sure that the parents' primary concern is the welfare of their daughter - as would be the concern of pretty much every parent.

No.

Process:

1. Most parents outside the haredi community would RUN to the police and would do everything possible to have the rapist caught.

2. You ignore halakha (no surprise there).

3. Every the pain of other girl that is raped is caused by the parents who came before them and who did not cooperate with police.

4. You show no concern at all for the other victims and for future victims.

Why don't you process this:

1. Reluctance of rape victims - even adult victims - to cooperate is not an issue that is unique to orthodox jews. The reasons vary and often depend on the degree of cooperations requested - e.g. some won't face the rapist in a court room, some are concerned about becoming the target of smear campaign as part of the rapists defense (though many states have laws that seek to avoid this to various degrees), etc.

2. Halacha has nothing to do with this. If my daughter were the victim and what was best for my daughter conflicted with halacha, I can't say I would follow halacha. Besides, since when do you care about halacha.

3. There is nothing in my statement that shows lack of concern for future victims. In fact, I was quite clear that the right thing is for the parents to do what they can to help the police. My point, that you seem to be incapable of comprehending, is that these parents are not bad people. They were put in a position I would never want to be in and they are trying to do what they think is best for their daughter. I think they are wrong, but I would try to get them to change their minds with compassion for what they are going through rather than the callousness that you have shown. The parents are victims as well. Would you accuse a rape victim who refuses to face the rapist in court of being responsible for future rapes by the rapist if he gets off the hook due to her refusal to testify or that she is not concerned about future victims?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Anon: Perhaps you're right, after all. But stigmatizing the victim, for whatever reason (even if her lack of fault is acknowledged) compounds the suffering. With proper counseling, a rape victim can get beyond victimhood (not that one ever gets over it), and lead a successful life.

[Rachel Batya]

-- I wouldn't write this off, I would have some concerns about dating a girl if I new she was raped or abused as a child.--

There are many, many women who were sexually abused as children, and chances are, you will be meeting them, more than you can imagine. Yes, untreated survivors often have tremendous difficulties coping with life, but those of us who have done the recovery work are doing quite well. While it's never "over," it doesn't keep us from having happy marriages, raising great kids, and having fulfilling lives. In fact, it often makes us more compassionate, more empathetic, and more tenacious about righting the wrongs of the world--in other words, we often become just the sort of person you might want to spend some time with.

This is why it's so important that this girl's parents not keep the situation quiet out of fear that she will not be marriageable. There are other reasons that parents might not want to go to the police, such as not wanting to put the survivor through the hell of testifying, but the fact that the parents in question are worried about a shidduch is horrifying. It's treating what happened as though the shame attaches to the victim, rather than to the attacker.

[Anon]

Yochanan, the stigma is not something that can addressed through counseling. Counseling can only help someone deal with the stigma. The stigma is a societal ill that is unfortunate and needs to be addressed. However, until it is addressed, this girl's parents are right to consider the potential effects of the stigma.

[Rachel Batya]

--the stigma is not something that can addressed through counseling. Counseling can only help someone deal with the stigma. The stigma is a societal ill that is unfortunate and needs to be addressed. However, until it is addressed, this girl's parents are right to consider the potential effects of the stigma.--

And how do you suggest we address the stigma, or change it--by running home and locking the doors and windows? No. The only way to change an injustice is to stand up to it. In this case, these parents should make it very clear that their child is as pure as the day she was born, that no rapist can take that away from her, and that anyone who thinks otherwise needs to listen and learn. They can then help their daughter face the stigma, and get support for whatever insanity comes their way. If that means finding another community, preferably one with a clue, all the better.

Lots of women have been through this kind of community-shaming stuff (myself included), and standing up to it is the only way to begin healing and the only way to change the injustice. Plenty of people collapse into obscurity in the face of an injustice, but it doesn't move the process forward at all. It only sets it back.

[Anon]

Rachel Batya, I don't disagree with you. My point was only that while it may be unfortunate that a victim does not stand up to the stigma and is therefore victimized again, the victim and her family are not bad people or doing anything nefarious as Shmarya insinuates.