Crown Heights Trials: 1992 & 1997

One block past Kingston, 29-year-old Australian Hasidic student Yankel Rosenbaum was walking from an evening class, unaware of the nearby accident. The mob spotted him and chased him for three blocks, shouting "There's a Jew, kill the Jew!" Caught, he was stabbed repeatedly and left bleeding.

Finding a bloody knife in his pocket, the police apprehended 16-year-old Lemrick Nelson, Jr. At a "show-up" identification in the hospital, Rosenbaum positively identified Nelson as the person who stabbed him. The victim died the next day, reportedly of a back wound that had not been treated by Kings County Hospital doctors who failed to turn him over. Nelson soon made an oral confession to the police.

Rioting in Crown Heights continued for three days. During this time, according to later reports, Jewish residents were beaten up, cars were overturned and set afire, and stores were looted and firebombed. Police officers, reportedly forbidden by their commanders to respond to calls for help, in some cases were told they would be suspended if they left their posts to protect Jews who were being beaten only yards away. Finally, after three days, hundreds of police in riot gear arrived on foot, motorcycle, and horseback to restore order.

The Democratic administration of Mayor David Dinkins, an African American, was widely blamed for imposing a strategy of inaction by the police. The following year Dinkins lost his re-election bid to Republican Rudolph Guiliani—a result many pundits attributed to Dinkins's inept and belated response to the Crown Heights riots.