As the NYPD bristles at Shomrim's insistence that publicly funded security camera footage be censored by Shomrim before police are allowed to view it, Brooklyn's ethics-challenged District Attorney Charles J. Hynes refuses to criticize the haredi vigilante group.
Charles J. Hynes yukking it up with an unidentified haredi rabbi, Brooklyn, 1994
The Daily News reports:
…In a recent interview with The Jewish Daily Forward, Jacob Daskal, who coordinates Shomrim in Borough Park, said cameras work best “if it’s a private thing.”
“If it’s a public thing, it might hurt a person who doesn’t want to arrest her husband for domestic violence,” he said.
The NYPD bristled at any suggestion that footage from security cameras wouldn’t be shared with police. “We don’t think there should be any filter between the police and a victim of a crime or evidence of a crime,’’ said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD’s top spokesman. “If there’s a crime, we’ll decide.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who has been criticized for not releasing the names of suspects in sex abuse cases in the Orthodox community, declined to comment specifically on the camera controversy.
The Forward didn't ask the NYPD or Charles Hynes for comment about Daskal's statement even though Shomrim's relationship with both has been the subject of much public criticsm.
However, Hynes refusal to comment, as noted by the Daily News is significant, because Hynes has allegedly allowed exactly the type of obstruction of justice Daskal advocates to continue.
As for the NYPD, its annual public softball game against Shomrim was postponed last night due to rain. But it may have been much better if it had simply been cancelled due to what clearly appears to be a conflict of interest in policing that hurts the citizens of New York City but that benefits Shomrim and the haredi rabbis it answers to.
Related Post: Borough Park's Shomrim Want To Block Police From Seeing Security Camera Footage.
[Hat Tip: JK.]