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The Crown Heights Riot was a three-day riot in the Crown Heights neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The community was home to approximately 180,000 Caribbean-Americans and West Indians (50%), African Americans (39%), and a minority population of about 20,000 Jewish residents (11%). Six percent of the residents of Crown Heights were Lubavitch Chassidim.^[1] The riots began on August 19, 1991, and were called "one of the most serious incidents of antisemitism in American history" by Edward Shapiro, Professor of History Emeritus at Seton Hall University^[2] and a pogrom of Blacks against Jews by Professor Stephen J. Whitfield, Max Richter Professor of American Civilization, Journalism, and American Studies at Brandeis University.^[3] Then District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said the rioting was “the most chilling” in New York City’s history, and the anti-Semitic slogans and slurs of the rioters “were the most vile incitement to hatred, destruction, and murder that Brooklyn has ever witnessed."^[4][2] Many in the Jewish community viewed it as a pogrom.^[5]

Contents 1 Event immediately precipitating the riot 2 Grand Jury 3 Traffic Accident, preferential treatment, or anti-Semitism? 4 Scope of the riot 5 Black rioter kills Jewish student 6 2nd trial 7 3rd & 4th trial 8 Impact of the riot on the 1993 mayoral race 9 Crown Heights violence between Blacks and Jews prior to and after the riot 10 Healing in Crown Heights 11 Fictional portrayals in film and television 12 Notes 13 External links

At approximately 8:20 p.m. on August 19, 1991, Yosef Lifsh, 22, was driving a station wagon with three passengers east on President Street, part of a three-car motorcade accompanying the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The procession was led by an unmarked police car with two officers, with its rooftop light flashing.^[2] Lifsh's vehicle fell behind. He continued through the intersection at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue in an attempt to rejoin the group. "Witnesses disagree on the speed of the wagon,"^[6] and Hynes said "there were varying accounts among the witnesses as to whether the traffic light on the corner was red or yellow when Mr. Lifsh went through."^[7] He swerved to avoid hitting a car being driven north on Utica Avenue. Lifsh's vehicle struck the other car, veered onto the sidewalk, knocked a 600-pound stone building pillar down, hit a wall, and then injured a seven-year-old Guyanese boy named Gavin Cato and his cousin Angela Cato, also seven.^[8][9]

The first two vehicles in the motorcade, unaware of the accident behind them, continued to their destination.^[2] The officer in the lead car testified that when he went through the intersection, the light was green. The Rev. Al Sharpton, however, said all three cars ran a red light.^[10]

Lifsh, bleeding from the face and head (later receiving 18 stitches),^[11][12] exited the station wagon to assist the victims, who were pinned beneath the car.^[13][6] "Unidentified black men led one of the passengers away to safety,"^[6] while two police officers protected the other Lubavitchers from several hundred bystanders who quickly gathered at the scene.^[2] A volunteer ambulance from the Hatzolah ambulance corps then arrived at about 8:23 p.m., and their "crew was at first attending to the two Black children but stopped doing so when the first City crew arrived" that would eventually take Gavin to Kings County Hospital one mile away, arriving at 8:32 p.m.^[2] Volunteers from a second Hatzolah ambulance helped Angela, until a second City ambulance arrived and took her to the same hospital.^[2][6]

Lifsh said he thought he had the right of way to proceed through the intersection because of the police escort.^[2] He deliberately steered his car away from adults on the sidewalk, toward the wall, a distance of about 25 yards (22.9 m), hoping that it would stop the car. "Unfortunately, the car did not come to a full stop upon impact with the building, but rather slid to the left along the wall until it reached the children." Then, "the first thing I did was to try and lift the car" to free the children.^[14] However, the angry bystanders robbed him,^[15] and an attendant from Hatzolah reported, "When we arrived, three or four black people" were beating him.^[16][2] The first ambulance to leave the accident scene was the volunteer ambulance, because the two attending police officer directed the Hatzolah driver to remove Lifsh and his passengers from the scene for their safety. The technician from the City ambulance concurred with the situation regarding the escalating scene, and also instructed the volunteer Ambulance driver to take Lifsh to the hospital.^[17] The New York Times reported on August 20, “[m]ore than 250 neighborhood residents, mostly black teenagers shouting ’Jews! Jews! Jews!’ jeered the driver of the car ... and then turned their anger on the police."^[18]

According to a Time magazine account published the following month, "[t]heir anger was compounded by the false rumor that Lifsh was drunk and by the fact that he was immediately whisked away in a private Lubavitcher ambulance while city emergency-service members worked to free the two Cato cousins pinned under the car."^[19] However, within 70 minutes after the accident, Lifsh was given a breath alcohol test at Methodist Hospital, and the test was negative.^[2] On the Thursday following the riot, Mary Pinkett, an African American City Councilwoman of Crown Heights, noted that when the volunteer ambulance left, Gavin was still pinned under the car. During the week, both the ambulance service and city officials publicized this fact, but most Black residents continued to believe the rumor that they left without concern for the black children.^[20] During the three days of rioting, many other false rumors circulated, including Lifsh deliberately tried to run down the Catos, Lifsh did not have a valid driver's license, that he was talking on a cell phone when the accident occurred, Cato died because the Hatzolah crew refused to help non-Jews, that the police and the Brooklyn District Attorney altered Lifsh' blood alcohol test, that Gavin's father was beaten by police for interfering with the rescue, and that the police prevented bystanders from helping lift the car off Gavin.^[2]

The ensuing events that night, summarized by the Law Library, went as follows: "As the crowd and rumors grew, people threw bottles and rocks to protest the treatment of the children. At about 11:00 p.m., someone shouted, 'Let's go to Kingston Avenue and get a Jew!' A number of black youths then set off toward Kingston, a street of predominantly Jewish residents several blocks away, vandalizing cars and heaving rocks and bottles as they went."^[21]

Cato died as a results of his injuries, and Angela Cato suffered several fractures on her leg.^[6] The Cato family received a $400,000 settlement from the city.^[22]

A Grand Jury composed of 10 African Americans, 8 Caucasians, and 5 Latinos was convened. It found no cause to indict Lifsh. Hynes explained that by New York law, the single act of "losing control of a car" is not criminal negligence even if death or injury resulted. Sharpton planned and led a protest march against Hynes for failing to indict Lifsh. The protest was held in front of Hynes' summer home, which Sharpton called an "apartheid village in Queens."^[2]Subsequently, several lawsuits attempting to compel the city to unseal the evidence presented to the Grand Jury were dismissed, including a decision by the Appellate Court.^[7][23][24] Judge Theodore Jones of the State Supreme Court (Brooklyn) explained that a poll of the Grand Jury indicated over 75% of the 33 witnesses, including 12 of 16 of the bystanders in the crowd, were concerned for their safety.^[23]

An allegation that has surfaced (e.g., on blogs) is that Lifsh, being Jewish, fled to Israel to avoid the Grand Jury. This false statement was published by Sharpton in his autobiography five years after the Grand Jury investigation.^[25] In fact, Lifsh waived immunity, testified before the Grand Jury,^[7] and it was about an hour after Lifsh "testified before the grand jury in state Supreme Court" that they found there was no credible evidence to indict him.^[26] Subsequently, Lifsh moved to Israel, where his family lives, because his life was threatened.^[27] It was the Cato family who refused to cooperate with the Grand Jury and its investigation. An explanation for this strategy was that their attorney, Colin Moore "advised them not to cooperate with the grand jury because he anticipated that Lifsh would not be indicted, and he wanted the family to be able to claim later that the grand jury's proceedings had been prejudiced because they had not participated in them.^[2]

Retrospectively, members of the Black community contended that the officer's orders were racially motivated, because the children should have been the first to leave the scene and taken to the hospital, regardless of which ambulance was available. This was considered to be yet another example of preferential treatment accorded to Jews over African Americans in the Crown Heights community.^[9] Many in the Black community were concerned about the expansion of Jews moving into the neighborhood, believing the latter were buying all the property.^[28]

However, a Newsday investigation conducted several weeks after the traffic accident by Michael Powell and Jennifer Preston found little evidence supporting the claim of preferential treatment for Jews in Crown Heights.^[29] Their lengthy report concluded that "blacks in Crown Heights were not being shortchanged in the allocation of government funds for job training, youth and other social programs, subsidized apartments, street paving, and job training"^[2][30] Similar conclusions were made by others researching this claim.^[31][32] In Crown Heights, the income of Blacks was greater than Lubavichers,^[2] which was a reason why one neighbor may have received proportionaly less public assistance than the next.

Members of the Jewish community of Crown Heights viewed the allegation of favoritism as an attempt to obscure the open display of anti-Semitism and hate crimes committed during and after the riot against Jews, a minority of about 11% of Crown Heights. In addition to the daily chants of anti-Semitic slurs during the rioting, they cited evidence that banners were unfurled with slogans such as “Hitler did not do the job” at Cato's funeral.^[29] Sharpton made anti-Semitic statements, in his eulogy for Gavin, regarding "diamond dealers"^[33][34] and said "it's an accident to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights."^[35] Sharpton attempted to re-incite the Black community with the challenge: "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."^[36] Other anti-Semitic remarks were made in eulogies at Cato's funeral by The Rev. Herbert D. Daughtry, Sr. and Sonny Carson.^[2]

"On June 11, 1992, after the Anti-Defamation League accused Sharpton of helping to incite anti-Semitism in the Crown Heights conflict, Sharpton scoffed, 'You don't even have a direct quote from me that anyone can call anti-Semitic.' Sharpton has also reminded people that he never participated in the looting and riots that followed Cato's death. In a June 29, 2003, Washington Post article, however, Sharpton took a more apologetic stance: When questioned about his past abrasive comments (which included calling blacks who disagreed with him 'yellow niggers'), he said, 'I've grown … I'm not as brash. There are ways I look at life now that I would not have when I was a younger man from the ghetto.'"^[37]

For three days following the accident, numerous African Americans and Caribbean Americans of the neighborhood, joined by non-residents, rioted in Crown Heights. Many of the non-residents were in Crown Heights that evening attending a B. B. King concert less than a mile away. As they left the hall, speakers "harangued" them regarding the death of Cato, and "encouraged the growing crowd at the scene of the accident to resort to violence." Indeed, over the course of the next three days, many of the rioters "did not even live in Crown Heights".^[2]

That night, Monday, in addition to the killing described in the next section, three policemen were assaulted.^[2]

On Tuesday, 18 Jewish people were injured; four stores were looted, including the Korean immigrant-owned Sneaker King where athletic footwear was sold that was completely emptied, a N. Y. Chicken, and the Iranian-owned Utica Gold Exchange was burned to the ground; 50 cars were damaged including 8 that were overturned and burned; and 60 homes were damaged.^[20] The rioters located Jewish homes by mezuzot affixed to the front doors.^[20] Following a rally by the anti-Semitic New Alliance Party addressed by Al Sharpton and Lenora Fulani, black teenagers threw bricks and bottles at police, who retreated after gunshots from the crowd. Shots were fired at police, and 12 police officers were injured.^[2]

On Wednesday, Al Sharpton and Alton H. Maddox, Jr. warned the city in a press conference that if Lifsh was not arrested, they would make a citizen's arrest.^[2] During Wednesday, 8 police officers were shot and 10 were hit by bricks, two civilians were shot, a Lubavitcher man was knifed, individuals were pulled from their cars and beaten, the Police Commissioner's car was pelted, four police cars were overturned and others were set on fire, a Molotov cocktail was thrown, and David Dinkins was forced to remain in the Cato family's apartment after he visited them because bottles and rocks were being thrown at him.^[20]

The Israeli flag was burned, and rioters marched through Crown Heights carrying anti-Semitic signs.^[2] African-Americans walked around in front of 770 Eastern Parkway, the Lubavitcher headquarters, shouting "Heil Hitler" and throwing rocks, prompting the police to erect barricades in front of the building.^[38]

An additional 350 police officers were added to the regular duty roster assigned to Crown Heights by Tuesday morning in an attempt to quell the rioting.^[2] After major episodes of rock and bottle throwing, Blacks marched through Crown Heights shouting, "Death to the Jews!"^[2] As a result, an additional 1,200 police officers were dispatched to confront rioters on Wednesday, including for example, "about 500 blacks" just at the intersection of President Street and Utica Avenue.^[39] The attacks by rocks, bricks, bottles, and eventually gunshots were of such magnitude that it overwhelmed a detachment of 200 police officers wearing full riot gear, who had to retreat for their safety. On Thursday, over 1,800 police officers, including mounted and motorcycle units, were dispatched to stop the attacks on Jews, the police, stores, homes, vehicles, and other property. Protesters in front of the Lubavitcher headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway were reduced to shouting anti-Semitic slurs for 20 minutes.^[2]

There were no incidents reported on Friday. During a march organized by Sharpton and Alton H. Maddox on Saturday, 1,400 police officers were on patrol, including a helicopter unit. There were no reported incidents of violence, but protesters shouted anti-Semitic slurs. Of the 400 protesters, 250 had been bused in from Harlem.^[2]

By the time the three days of rioting ended, a Lubavitcher woman, Bracha Estrin, a widow who had survived the Holocaust, was driven to commit suicide. "She lived near the Cato apartment house, which had become the gathering place for agitators, and for a week she had been subjected to anti-Semitic harangues. Estrin had reportedly told neighbors that she could not endure what was taking place in the neighborhood."^[2] In addition, 152 police officers and 38 civilians were injured, 27 vehicles were destroyed, seven stores were looted,^[40], and 225 cases of robbery and burglary were committed.^[2] At least 129 arrests were made during the riots,^[40] including 122 African Americans and seven whites.^[38][41]

Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, was a University of Melbourne student who was in the United States conducting research for his doctorate. Approximately three hours after the riots began, he was surrounded by a group of approximately 20 young black men, was stabbed several times in the back, had his skull fractured, and died later that night. U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it "a lynching."^[20]

Before being taken to the hospital, he was able to identify 16-year-old Lemrick Nelson, Jr. as his assailant out of five suspects shown to him by the police.^[6] Nelson was charged with murder. Despite his admission to detectives that he stabbed Rosenbaum, and police evidence of finding a knife with blood on it that matched Rosenbaum's blood type,^[42][43] he was acquitted by the jury in New York State Court. Afterwards, Nelson publicly celebrated his acquittal with jurors.^[44]

Attorney General Janet Reno was recalcitrant in considering whether Rosenbaum's civil rights had been violated. The United States Senate voted 97-0, on September 29, 1993, in approval of a bi-partisan non-binding resolution by Senators Alphonse D'Amato (New York) and Robert Dole (Kansas), and co-sponsored by Daniel Patrick Moynihan (New York), Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut), Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), and Jesse Helms (North Carolina) that the Department of Justice investigate the matter. D'Amato said, "The Justice Department's failure to investigate the horrors of what took place in Crown Heights is a national disgrace."^[2]

Subsequently, United States Attorney Zachary W. Carter of the Eastern District of New York indicted Nelson in Federal Court with violating Rosenbaum's civil rights. Nelson's defense strategy was he should be tried as a juvenile,^[2] and that chances of rehabilitation were favorable.^[2] The argument over this issue was the reason "for the interval of two and a half years between Nelson's original indictment in August 1994 and the 1997 trial. Originally, Federal District Judge David G. Trager ruled in Nelson's favor, but the decision was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) in October, 1995.^[2]

At the trial, Nelson's girlfriend, Travionne Shaw, testified that Nelson had told her, "The black people in Crown Heights rioted. And some friends and him [Nelson] had been drinking, and they saw this man [and] stabbed him."^[45] Transcripts state that the prosecutor, Alan Vinegard, said: "He perceives himself to be the victim, and not the perpetrator," to which Nelson replied, "Damn right." The case concluded in February, 1997. Nelson received a prison sentence of 19.5 years.^[46]

In addition to the current charge, in 1994 Nelson had been arrested in Georgia on criminal assault charges on two occasions for slashing a student with a razor and with a switchblade.^[47]. Therefore, Trager "forbade Nelson from ever possessing a weapon" because Nelson was "prone to violence and the use of weapons," was a "danger to the community," and had shown no remorse."^[2]

Charles Price, 44, a heroin addict and convicted thief, was charged as a co-defendant for inciting a mob, including Nelson, to "get Jews." A witness said that Price riled up the crowd, and then shouted, "I'm going up to the Jew neighborhood! Who's with me?"^[2] In addition, a transcript of an audio tape of Price's intent to do bodily harm to Jews, and to incite others to do bodily harm to Jews, was made in 1995 by an undercover informant, and was entered into evidence. A police officer testified he saw and heard a "bald black man," referring to Price, shouting at the crowd, "Let's get a Jew." Another officer testified that he also heard Price's incitement to riot.^[45] After Price was found guilty, prior to sentencing he took responsibility for inciting violence against Jews, yelling to the crowd, “we are going to take Kingston” Avenue. Trager then reduced his 21 years 10 months sentence to 11 years 8 months.^[48][49]

In 2002, Nelson was granted a new trial,^[50] where his attorney admitted Nelson stabbed Rosenbaum, despite previously having convinced the State jury of his peers otherwise. The new argument was that the stabbing wasn't a hate crime triggered by Rosenbaum's religion, but because Nelson was intoxicated.^[51] When he confessed to the police at the 71st Precinct, Nelson said he had drank some beer, but arresting officer Detective Mark Hoppe testified that Nelson's behavior and speech indicated he was not intoxicated, and Officer Richard Sanossian, who guarded Nelson that evening, concurred.^[52] None of the "bystanders [who testified] saw any indication that Nelson was intoxicated."^[2] No witnesses testified for the Defense at trial, even to substantiate the claim Nelson was intoxicated.^[2]

The strategy was "risky, and it reflected the desperation of Nelson's defense team. Because Nelson's lawyers had denied at his two pervious trials that he had stabbed Rosenbaum, the government could argue before the jury that, as Nelson's attorneys had lied earlier, it could be assumed they would not be reluctant to do so again.^[2] To date, Nelson has not been charged with perjury for testimony in State Court, and nor has his Defense team been charged with an ethics violation. In 2003, Nelson was sentenced to 10 years,^[6] and with time already served, left him in prison for 1/2 year. He was released to a halfway house on June 5, 2004.^[53]

"The repercussions of the Crown Heights riot, based on the official indifference to the plight of Jews, contributed directly to the defeat of the incumbent mayor of New York,"^[54] David Dinkins. He was embattled by many political adversaries in his reelection bid, including vocal proponents of “black nationalism, back-to-Africa, economic radicalism, and racial exclusiveness.”^[2] Sharpton called him “Uncle Tom” and “that nigger whore turning tricks in City Hall,” Maddox called him “an Ed Koch in blackface,” and C. Vernon Mason accused him of “wearing too many yarmulkes.”^[2] Cato's funeral provided them with “an opportunity to challenge the black establishment.” Their diatribes were such a “carnival of hatred so obscene that [Gato’s] grieving parents were all but forgotten.”^[55][2].

Governor Mario Cuomo, in State of New York Executive Order 160, November 17, 1992, gave the Director of Criminal Justice Services, Richard H. Girgenti, the authority to investigate the rioting and the Nelson trial. The Girgenti Report was compiled by over 40 lawyers and investigators, and produced a two volume 600 page document of its findings on July 20, 1993. It was extremely critical of Police Commissioner Lee Brown. The report also "embarrassed"^[2] Dinkins on his handling of the riots. Headlines of major newspapers on July 21 pounced on the report's findings: "Harsh Light on Mayor Highlights Longstanding Criticisms" (New York Times), "Dinkins Blew It" (Newsday), "Too Little Too Late" (Daily News).

Dinkins "hesitated to deploy vast numbers of police to stop the rioting," because he "had been elected as a peacemaker." However, this strategy "proved disastrous."^[56] Jews criticized Dinkins for this. The first night of the riot, he, along with Police Commissioner Lee Brown, both African Americans, went to Crown Heights to dispel the false rumors about the circumstances surrounding the accident, but they had no impact on the "young blacks roaming the streets."^[20] In a 16 minute speech on the Thanksgiving holiday following the riot, Dinkins denied preventing police from protecting citizens in Crown Heights.^[2] He said, "Black anti-Semitism ... cannot be tolerated."^[42] Nevertheless, many Jews believed Dinkins failed to contain the riot and that "the mayor had responsibility that he did not exercise, to the detriment of the Jewish community."^[57]

Uniformed police were hostile to Dinkins. "They believed the mayor had prevented them from doing their duty during the riot, and that he had blamed them for his own failures."^[2] As a result, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association strongly supported Giuliani, Dinkin's opponent, in the mayoral election of 1993.

The Crown Heights riot was an important issue raised repeatedly on the campaign trail. New York politicians who called the riots a pogrom included Ed Koch, the previous mayor of New York;^[58] and Andrew Stein, a Democrat challenger in the 1993 mayoral primary.^[2] Rudolph Giuliani, who would become the next mayor of New York, called the Crown Heights riot a pogrom because "for three days people were beaten up, people were sent to the hospital because they were Jewish. There's no question that not enough was done about it by the city of New York" and "one definition of pogrom is violence where the state doesn't do enough to prevent it."^[59] Giuliani won by 44,000+ votes. Support for Dinkins by Jews, Hispanics and Puerto Ricans, Asian-Americans, uniformed police officers, and first-time voters decreased significantly from the previous election.^[2]

The largest drop in support was by Italian-Americans. Part of the reason was a reaction to Dinkins' failure to recognize as a hate crime the murder of Italian-American Anthony Graziosi, 67, on September 5, six blocks away from the Rosenbaum stabbing. He was shot when he stopped at a red light and four black men surrounded his car. They did not take his wallet with $125 or electronic equipment in the car. Graziosi's family said he was wearing a dark suit, had a white beard, and was mistaken for a Jew.^[2]

In 1964, some rabbinical students were attacked by a large group of blacks, a Rabbi's wife was slashed with a knife in an attempted rape by a black man, and a young schoolteacher was raped and murdered by a black man.^[2] In July, 1970, blacks set two dozen Jewish properties on fire and firebombed the Crown Heights Jewish Community Center.^[2] In September, 1975, Israel Turner was killed by a black man while returning home from Synagogue, and during the funeral procession, blacks taunted the mourners by yelling "Heil Hitler" and "Hitler was right!"^[2] In June, 1977, Abraham Goldman was stabbed to death by a black man.^[2] There were numerous incidences of minor violence of blacks against Jews in 1978. Following anti-Semitic remarks from Daughtry, 24 African American Baptist Ministers from New York City issued a proclamation disassociating themselves from anti-Semitism.^[2]

In 1979, Rabbi David Okunov was murdered by a black man while walking to Synagogue.^[2] In 1986, Israel Rosen, visiting from Australia, was killed by a group of black men.^[2] In January, 1988, a Chassidic man was slashed, and black teenagers attacked some rabbinical students.^[2] In March, 1989, a Chassidic woman's face was slashed by a black mugger.^[2] In March, 1989, Chris Gilyard, 16, was charged with robbery, second-degree assault, and possession of a deadly weapon (razor), after attacking Shoshana Rabkim, 45, who received 35 stitches in her face, and Shalom, 22, her son, who received 7 stitches behind his ear.^[60]Altogether, from 1984 up until the riot, 10 Lubavitchers were murdered in Crown Heights by black assailants.^[2]

After the riot, there were scattered incidents over the next several weeks, including gunshots into a synagogue on Maple Street. Six months later, Phyllis Lapine, 38, was murdered. She was the mother of four, and had moved to Crown Heights from Texas. On February 6, 1992, she was stabbed by a black assailant more than 30 times while carrying groceries to her apartment on Lefferts Avenue. The same day of the murder, a Lubavitch couple was beaten and robbed by two black men yelling "Jew, give me your money." Two weeks later, a school bus with Lubavitch children was attacked by two black teenagers with rocks and bricks.^[2][18][61]

In 1978, a group of Lubavitchers attacked Victor Rhodes for allegedly knocking the skullcap off of a Rabbi's head. In 1986, a black teenager was beaten by three members of a Lubavitch anti-crime patrol.^[2] In 1989, Rabbi Israel Shemtov, a member of the Lubavitch anti-crime patrol, and his son, were arrested three weeks after the Gilyard attack on Lubavitchers, on charges they were in the group who beat Gilyard while detaining him. A grand jury found no credible evidence to indict the rabbi or his son.^[62] Shemtov was tried but acquitted in 1989 for "assault, weapons possession, riot and unlawful imprisonment for an incident Sept. 22 in which a bicyclist, Robert James, was knocked from his bicycle and beaten after a group of Hasidim accused him of robbing a neighborhood resident."^[63] Shemtov was instructed to limit the anti-crime patrol's activity to notifying police instead of taking matters into its own hand, which is vigilantism.^[2] In December, 1992, Ralph Nimmons, 25, with six prior convictions for robbery, was caught breaking into a Rabbinical school on Union Street. A group of Yeshiva students attempted to restrain him, and in the scuffle, Nimmons was injured. Moshe Katzman, 24, one of the students, was arrested for 2nd degree assault, and violating Nimmons' civil rights by yelling racial slurs at him. The charges were dismissed after Nimmons, on the advice of his attorney, Michael W. Warren, refused to cooperate or testify before the Grand Jury.^[2]

Relations between Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights began to improve almost immediately following the rioting.^{[citation needed]} A week after the riots, Hatzolah helped repair an ambulance of a Black-owned volunteer service. The following year, the Brooklyn Children's Museum held an exhibit on the contributions made by Blacks and Jews in New York. In 1992, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was active in promoting improved Black-Jewish relations. In 1993, a series of neighborhood basketball games were scheduled between the two groups, including a scrimmage held as part of the halftime entertainment of a New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76s professional basketball game. Also that year, while on the anti-crime patrol, Shemtov rushed to the aid of a black woman who had been shot on the street in Crown Heights, putting her in his car and taking her to the hospital.^[64] The Crown Heights Mediation Center was established in 1998 to help resolve local differences. On August 19, 2001, a street fair was held in memory of Cato and Rosenbaum, and their relatives met and exchanged mementos of hopes of healing in Crown Heights.

• On the sketch show In Living Color the 1991 season 3 premier episode does a sketch called Crown Heights Story.
• A 2004 television movie, Crown Heights, was made about the aftermath of the riot, starring Howie Mandel.
• Two episodes of Law & Order, one during season two and another during season four, were based on the riots.
• Anna Deveare Smith wrote a play called Fires in the Mirror, depicting 29 real interviews with real people involved in the controversy.

• Crown Heights. Blacks, Jews and the 1991 Brooklyn Riot
• Race and Religion among the Chosen Peoples of Crown Heights, by Henry Goldschmidt (Rutgers University Press, 2006)
• The Crown Heights Riot and Its Aftermath. Article