(Updated 6:13 p.m.) Members of a politically influential yeshiva led by Rabbi Daniel Greer (pictured at top) — who have spent more than a decade rebuilding their stretch of Edgewood — have organized an armed citizens patrol.
They made the announcement Monday afternoon at Yeshiva of New Haven (aka The Gan School) on Elm Street. They plan to begin patrolling Monday evening in two-person teams wearing “Edgewood Park Defense Patrol” T‑shirts and carrying concealed, licensed firearms.
The patrols are scheduled to run from 6 to 10 p.m. daily in the area bounded by Norton Street, Edgewood Avenue, and West Park and Whalley Avenues.
That’s the neighborhood where Greer’s organization has rehabilitated 40 old-style New Haven houses and planted 450 trees over the past 18 years. It surrounds the old Roger Sherman School, which Greer’s organization converted into an Orthodox Jewish school. The organization has also worked with neighbors to combat prostitution in the area, instituting a successful “John of the Week” effort which featured pinched patrons’ names on flyers.
“We are unwilling to give up,” Greer said at Monday’s announcement in a classroom on the school’s second floor. Family members from the yeshiva as well as neighbors — including Alderwoman Liz McCormack and 24th Ward Democratic Co-Chair Hank Campbell — joined him.
“We can fix all the houses up. We can plant trees. But if we cannot walk our streets securely, all our efforts are for naught,” Greer said. Rather than be victims or depend any longer on the police department, he said, the group is determined to tackle crime head on.
Click on the play arrow at left to watch Greer speak about the decline of community policing.
A longtime ally of Mayor John DeStefano, Greer did not alert City Hall in advance of plans to announce an armed patrol. Greer did communicate, repeatedly, his dissatisfaction with Police Chief Francisco Ortiz. Monday he called Ortiz the “Donald Rusmfeld” of the police department.
“There’s only one solution — to remove the chief,” Greer said. “He’s a very sweet guy. I would love to have drinks with him. But he cannot run the police department.”
Asked about the armed patrols right before the press conference, DeStefano said he had no comment yet because he hadn’t known about them.
After the press conference, DeStefano backed Ortiz and disagreed with the patrol idea.
“The chief has my full support. Chief Ortiz is doing a good job,” DeStefano said.
Anyone who patrols the street with a gun “is putting themselves and others at risk,” he said.
Ortiz couldn’t be reached for comment.
Greer — a former city police commissioner — observed that crime had declined dramatically during the heyday of community policing in the 1990s and early years of this decade. In the past three years assaults have been on the rise, as well as shootings.
The last straw for the group came Sunday night, when Greer’s son, Rabbi Dov Greer (pictured), was assaulted by young men right outside his house on Elm Street. Dov Greer said the men accosted him on the street and followed him into the house, where they beat him before fleeing as he called upstairs to his wife to phone the cops.
“There’s going to be authority. There’s going to be control,” his brother, Eliezer Greer, said. “There’s going to be rule of law on the street.”
Eliezer heads the Edgewood Neighborhood Association, one of the not-for-profits the yeshiva group formed to buy and renovate homes. He said he was carrying a registered weapon at the press conference and would take part in the patrols.
Click here to read the group’s press release.
And click on the play arrow at left to watch Eliezer Greer describe his vision for the patrols.
Alderwoman McCormack said she hadn’t known prior to coming to the press conference that the group’s plans include armed patrols.
Asked if she supports the idea, she responded, “I have to think about it… Something needs to be done.”
“One of my neighbors was mugged in the park. He was told to carry mace with him. I told him not to do that. It could be used against him,” she said.
Later, the mayor’s chief of staff, Sean Matteson, attacked McCormack for endorsing the civilian patrol idea.
“Just two weeks ago Liz voted to push back a new class of police officers in the budget. Now she is contradicting herself politically by calling for civilian patrols. Her reasoning makes no sense to me; it is irresponsible reactionary policy,” Matteson stated in a City Hall press release.
The rest of the release quoted the mayor. It read:
“We regret the attack on Rabbi Greer’s son. We have reviewed police deployment in that neighborhood. As we do throughout the entire city, we have increased the number of walking beats in that neighborhood and continue to assign officers to this type of patrol. In fact, the victim was in contact with an officer who was walking the neighborhood shortly before the incident and immediately thereafter. The first officer to respond was one of these walking patrols. Crime statistics in Edgewood are down and are lower than they’ve been in the past.”
“I have complete confidence in the Chief, Commanding Officers and the District Manager for this neighborhood.”
“In response to proposed armed civilian patrols, I believe that individuals who carry weapons with the intent of enforcing their view of appropriate behavior in the neighborhood is a recipe for disaster.”
I'm not sure this actually makes the neighborhood safer, unless the criminals are actually shot and killed, but I suppose it's up to the neighborhood to decide that. I recommend bullet proof vests and good gun training for the patrols. I also hope that the criminals who attacked this innocent man get caught and sent to prison for many years.