Police: NYC subway riders beaten after 'Happy Hanukkah' greeting

[Scurrilous]

Source: Associated Press

<snip>

"Four Jewish subway riders who wished other people "Happy Hanukkah" were pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten, police and prosecutors said. The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

The four were on a train in lower Manhattan on Friday night, during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings. The victims responded, "Happy Hanukkah," and then were assaulted by the larger group, police said Tuesday.

Police caught up with the train one stop later, in Brooklyn, and arrested eight men and two women, ages 19 and 20.

They were arraigned Saturday on charges of assault, menacing, riot, harassment and disorderly conduct, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said. They all pleaded not guilty. The case was being handled by the office's civil rights bureau, and charges could be upgraded to hate crimes, prosecutors said."

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--hanukkahattack1211dec11,0,1793775.story

[rpannier]

1. BILL O'REILLY GROUPIES

Obviously these are people who watch shill o'lieely and pasty gibson

[Robbien]

8. Hate talk radio is giving these bigots courage to go out and be bullies

Hate talk radio has a lot to answer for these days.

[Madam Mossfern]

2. I think the Republican pandering to the

Evangelical groups has emboldened people like the ones who were the attackers by fostering the perception that this is a Christian country and any others are lesser. When I see op-ed pieces like Andy Rooney's complaining about being wished "Happy Holidays" on network TV, I get a bit concerned.

[kestrel91316]

3. Why am I suspecting that the perps were fundies or skinhead

Christian Identity types???

[AX10]

4. The right wing and every GOP candidate has worked....

to foster this intolerance. They want a world, not just a nation, but a world in which non-Christians are second class citizens.

[teenagebambam]

5. This happened in MANHATTAN?!?

Why does this disturb me more than it would have had it been, say, Kansas?

[slackmaster]

15. Manhattan has a whole lot of everything

Including violent bigoted pieces of shit.

[leftynyc]

32. I work in Manhattan every day and

I also have been answering Happy Hanukkah to a Merry Christmas greeting during this holiday (I'll switch back to Happy Holidays after sundown tonight). This sends shivers up my spine.

[stray cat]

6. Lots of equal opportunity bigots running around

Glad to hear no one has started blaming the victims yet.

[rinsd]

7. Nothing shows that Christmas spirit like kicking ass for Jesus.

It makes me ill that based on mutual tidings of joy, one group felt it necessary to be violent.

[RamboLiberal]

9. I get the feeling these clowns were skinheads

The son of a firefighter arrested as part of a group that attacked straphangers celebrating Chanukah denied the attack was anti-Semitic, saying his late mother was Jewish.

Joseph Jirovec - who will begin serving six months in jail next month for a 2005 hate crime - claimed the Friday night fight on the Q train was simply a clash between two boisterous groups.

"We didn't even know they were Jewish at the time," said Jirovec, 19, who pleaded guilty last year to assaulting several black youths in Marine Park, Brooklyn.

"The whole hate crime talk is ridiculous," said Jirovec, adding that two of his friends who were arrested are also Jewish. "It hurts me."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/11/2007-12-11_suspect_chanukah_row_not_hate_crime.html

[JBoy]

14. "The whole hate crime talk is ridiculous. It hurts me"

Says the fucking punk who did the attacking.

[DavidDvorkin]

10. But -- but -- maybe it was a Christian train!

:eyes:

[TrogL]

11. I thought the war was on Christmas

[tom_paine]

17. Yeah just like the Jews wanted to destroy the Nazis.

THAT'S where your template for the War on Christams comes from. The dominant religion pretending a tiny minority is persecuting them.

Keep pushing on us, you Bushie-Nazi FUCKS! You think we didn't learn anything from the LAST TIME you assholes seized a Republic?

Ten against four, and two were women. That's Bushie-Nazi fucks, no doubt about it. They don't attack unless they have huge numerical advanatge and only if the victim's back is turned.

I cannot say what I am thinking now.

[antigone382]

12. More from the article:

The two men and two women who were attacked had bruises and welts on their faces and heads, police said.

One of the men charged, Joseph Jirovec, pleaded guilty last year to attempted robbery as a hate crime and was awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said. Jirovec, who is white, was part of a group that yelled racial epithets and assaulted two black teenagers in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

Jirovec's lawyer, Peter Mollo, said Tuesday it was very unlikely his client would attack another person for being Jewish.

"His mother was Jewish," Mollo said. "It's very unlikely he would do something like this at all."


-----


I was just in a play about the Holocaust this weekend...things like this make me so incredibly sad...

[johnfunk]

13. One of the suspects, Joseph Jirovec, has a violent racist reputation...

... as a simple ask.com search will reveal. Son of a firefighter, probably a Bensonhurst or Howard Beach skinhead.

[xchrom]

16. ''fear not -- for i bring tidings of joy...''

sad.

[oberliner]

18. Police: N.Y. subway riders beaten after 'Happy Hanukkah' greeting

Source: AP (via Ha'aretz)

Four Jewish subway riders who wished other people Happy Hanukkah were
pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten, New York police and prosecutors said. The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

The four were on a train in Manhattan on Friday night, during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings. The victims responded, Happy Hanukkah and were assaulted by the larger group, police said Tuesday.

Police caught up with the train in Brooklyn and arrested eight men and two women, ages 19 and 20. They were arraigned Saturday on charges of assault, menacing, riot, harassment and disorderly conduct, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.

The case was being handled by the office's civil rights bureau, and charges could be upgraded to hate crimes, prosecutors said. The two men and two women who were attacked had bruises and welts on their faces and
heads but were not hospitalized, police said.


Read more: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/933597.html

[tularetom]

19. christians gone wild

The O'reilly shock troops win one for the baby jesus!! Hoo fuckin ray!

[progressivebydesign]

20. not Christians.. just thugs.

I'm completely agnostic, but in this case, sounds like these people were just violent assholes in search of people to attack.

[TrogL]

22. they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings

Christians fighting the War on Christmas.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. Naah

That's how they were rolling.

Hey, how you doin'? Merry Christmas. What's up for a minute. Lemme see that watch. I just wanna take a look at it, relax...

Ahhhhh, Brooklyn.

[wellst0nev0ter]

25. Naah, Manhattan Son

If you read the article, the incident happened in Manhattan, and ya know how they do out there.

Also one of the perps was already convicted of a hate crime:

The son of a firefighter arrested as part of a group that attacked straphangers celebrating Chanukah denied the attack was anti-Semitic, saying his late mother was Jewish.

Joseph Jirovec - who will begin serving six months in jail next month for a 2005 hate crime - claimed the Friday night fight on the Q train was simply a clash between two boisterous groups.

"We didn't even know they were Jewish at the time," said Jirovec, 19, who pleaded guilty last year to assaulting several black youths in Marine Park, Brooklyn.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/11/2007-12-11_suspect_chanukah_row_not_hate_crime.html

Sorry, bruh, da folks keepin' it down in da BK have nuffin on them Island heads :eyes:

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. Yeah, but they were caught up with in Brooklyn

And they from Brooklyn.

That's the point.

That Brooklyn kids do they stick-ups in Ma'attuhn don't make it any less a Brooklyn game. ;-)

But seriously, do you think these kids was really running up to sing a Christmas carol and got burnt cuz the others were Jews? Or is it more plausible that they was runnin' up on these boys regardless? C'mon, now. That's just common sense on the MTA. You get a crew rollin, they gonna roll somebody. They ain't wishin' Merry Christmas.

[tom_paine]

27. Not Christians, BushChristians. There's a huge difference.

BushChristians worship Satan, though they do not realize it.

Let us not forget this. BushChristians, not Christians.

[peacebird]

21. "COULD" be upgraded to hate crimes?!? Good grief - attacking people for a HOLIDAY GREETING?

Just unfreakingbelievable.... Seriously - I say "Happy Holidays" to people on the street and to family and friends I give other greetings based on each persons beliefs.

But even if someone wished me "(insert your religious anathema here)" I wouldn't berate or attack them.

:wtf:

[tom_paine]

28. Bill O'reilly must be so proud. These are his children.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. I suspect our group of "well-wishers" were going to attack this group anyway

Brooklyn, son. That's how it is.

Superheroes! Get your power, your mask and cape snatched
Brooklyn take what you can't take back
I know alotta cats hate that
All I can say, black
There's a city fulla walls you can post complaints at...
-Mos Def

[Frank Cannon]

26. Nothing celebrates Baby Jesus's birthday like a beating (n/t)

[Doctor_J]

30. the Fox News "You MUST only wish Merry Christmas" gang needs

to be subdued, in a big way. It's a shame these victims weren't armed.

[BreweryYardRat]

31. Ah, the Right Wing Hate Machine claims more victims.

Honestly, someone needs to shove this in the faces of douchesocks like O'Reilly and Hannity -- on air -- and make them face up to what happens when you're preaching that Christmas is the only acceptable holiday. It just gives bigoted scum another excuse to harm the innocent.

An on-air apology would be nice, but I'm not counting on it.

[leftynyc]

33. This is what I don't understand about

the non-existent war on Christmas. Here in New York, it's stupid to wish someone a Merry Christmas unless you know for a fact they're Christians. Otherwise, you have a very good chance of getting it wrong although I don't kick anyone's ass if they do wish me a Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays is just good manners here.

[0007]

36. Your right on ... if we don't wake up soon it will be too late. nt

Fuck Bill O'Reilly!! and his 'Merry Christmas'

[Acadia Blue]

34. This Adm. encourages these nazis racists

[boricua79]

35. let me get this straight

non-Jewish holiday well-wishers approached 4 jewish subway riders...wished them happy holiday greetings (who knows, maybe it was "Merry Christmas"). The 4 jewish riders respond, "Happy Hannukah"...and then they beat them up?

Talk about holiday spirit there!

Moral of the story: when in doubt, keep your beliefs to yourself. If nobody asked you to "carol" for them, don't do it. And if nobody asked you to wish them "happy hanukkah" or "happy ramadan", don't. Keep it to yourself.

[RamboLiberal]

37. Check out these losers

Joseph Jirovec holds a gun on Kimberly Babajko in MySpace picture. Both are charged in vicious attack on Q train.


Babajko (l.) also wields a gun.

The three friends who suffered multiple bruises and cuts allegedly at the hands of Jirovec and his group have no doubts the attack was religiously motivated.

"They said, 'You dirty Jews, you killed Jesus on Chanukah, you should all die,'" said Maria Parsheva, 23, a Baruch College student.

Parsheva said she and her boyfriend, Walter Adler, also 23, are half-Jewish and were celebrating Chanukah at a Manhattan bar with Angelica Krischanvich, 21, and Nick Rosenbaum.

They carried a menorah and dreidels as they boarded the Qtrain at Canal St. bound for Brooklyn, Parsheva said.

On the train, they said Jirovec, Babajko and their friends loudly yelled "Merry Christmas" - and became infuriated when Krischanvich responded, "Happy Chanukah."

'You can't say that, we are Catholic,'" said Krischanvich, a Hunter College student who is not Jewish. "That's when two guys stood up and showed us their Jesus tattoos," she said. "They started yelling at us and telling us we have no savior."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/12/2007-12-12_hatecrime_talk_is_ridiculous_says_one_of-1.html

[dmallind]

38. Another datum for the "persecuted".

This is what it would be like if you really were...

[RamboLiberal]

39. Muslim Aids Jews Attacked On N.Y. Subway

A suspected bias attack on four Jewish subway riders in New York City has resulted in a friendship between the Jewish victims and the Muslim college student who came to their aid.

Walter Adler is calling Hassan Askari a hero for intervening when Adler and three friends were assaulted on a subway train in lower Manhattan on Friday night.

-----

The 20-year-old Askari, who suffered two black eyes, said he tried to fight off the 10 attackers, giving Adler a chance to summon police by pulling an emergency brake.

"I did what I thought was right," said Askari, a student at Berkeley College in Manhattan, who was allegedly punched and beaten. "I did the best that I could to help."

-----

"That a random Muslim kid helped some Jewish kids, that's what's positive about New York," said Adler, 23, who suffered a broken nose and a lip wound.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/12/national/main3609322.shtml

One good thing that came out of this attack! Hassan Askari is a hero!