Five Jewish teenagers are expected to appear in court Friday in connection with the beating of a Muslim man in Brooklyn.
The suspects were arrested Sunday after police say they shouted racial slurs before punching Shahid Amber with brass knuckles and breaking his nose outside an area Dunkin’ Donuts.
According to a court document obtained by NY1, the teens also shouted "…terrorist mother-[expletive,] you [expletive] our country. Why are you here? Go back to your country and never [expletive] with the Jews."
The District Attorney classified the assault as a hate crime, and three of the five suspects are being tried as adults.
"The man was attacked by these people who identified him as a Muslim and claimed that was the reason they attacked him and that’s of tremendous concern to us because he wasn’t attacked just as an individual, but as a member of the Muslim community," said Joel Levy of the Anti-Defamation League.
"We have to send out a message cohesively that this, we are not going to tolerate," said Mohammad Razvi of the Council of People Organization.
"We have been building a coalition in this community since after 9/11 and prior to as well – we are all Brooklyn – and we have been able to meet with and work with different leaders in the community and make sure that this sort of stuff just doesn’t hang," said Rabbi Bob Kaplan of Jewish Community Relations.
But, according to Ari Murkoff, who owns a nearby restaurant on Avenue A, this was not a hate crime and he said he did not hear any racial slurs.
“I saw a bunch of teenagers having an argument and one tried to have bravado and tried to call each other names and it escalated from names to hands,” said Murkoff. “This was definitely not racism; this was a bunch of wild teenagers.”
Razvi, on the other hand, said there are other witnesses who back up Amber’s account.
Amber was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he is awaiting reconstructive surgery. He is expected to make a full recovery.
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These Orthodox jewish teenagers were released this past week. It seems that people are charged with “hate crimes” and convicted according to who they are in this city. I don’t condone violence but why is somebody like “fat nick” convicted of a hate crime and these jewish teenagers walk free? Not too long ago, a young white man traveling by train to Harlem was attacked by a gang of black youths as he exited the subway. They called him “whitey” as they chased him into traffic where he was struck by a car and killed. These teens were not charged with “hate crimes”. It seems that there is a double standard when it comes to these crimes and white people are afraid to speak out for fear of being labled a “racist”