4 Hasidic Jews Busted in Beating of Gay Black Man in Brooklyn
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis April 23, 2014
The New York Police Department has arrested four Hasidic men in the December beating of a black gay man in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, according to news reports.
The NYPD confirmed to the Forward that four men were in custody, but had no information about what they were being held for.
The December 1 attack took place at 4:30 a.m. on Flushing Avenue in the Williamsburg section. The victim, Taj Patterson, 22, told investigators that he was attacked by a group of more than a dozen ultra-Orthodox men. The attack was witnessed by an MTA bus driver. Patterson required surgery to reattach his retina after the beating.
The arrests were first reported by Yeshiva World News and later confirmed by The Daily News. The New York Post reported that the Hasidic were being questioned by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
