Burnt bus sparks memories of violence in Crown Heights

NEW YORK — For days, the charred school bus sat in front of a Jewish girls’ school in Brooklyn, its ruined hulk posing a troubling question: Has the quarter-century of peace between blacks and Jews in Crown Heights begun to fray?

Twenty five years ago this August, the neighborhood’s black residents exploded into days of rioting after a 7-yearold boy, the son of Guyanese immigrants, was accidentally struck and killed by a car in the motorcade of the leader of the Lubavitcher sect. A rabbinical student was stabbed and died. Many people were beaten. Vehicles were flipped and burned.

Those tensions were supposed to have melted away a long time ago, but last Sunday afternoon a group of boys, all black, went aboard an unlocked bus parked in front of the Bnos Chomesh Academy, set fire to the seats and ran. Flames consumed the bus in minutes.

Five children, including 11-year-olds, a 12-year-old and two 14-year-olds, have been arrested and accused of arson and criminal mischief.

The episode prompted at least one leader in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community to formally complain to police about what he saw as a trend in anti-Semitic incidents.

Community leaders say that some tensions linger, but that newer stresses have taken over, including skyrocketing rents and gentrification.

“With an 11-year-old kid, I’m not sure. Maybe it was just mischief,” said Shea Hecht, a leading Lubavitch rabbi who had been among the community leaders working to quell the 1991 riot. “Some stupid 11-yearold kid did something. I hope we don’t all get bent out of shape and start thinking we have to go back and start fighting.”

Richard Green, a black community activist who has worked with neighborhood kids for more than three decades, said he thought the burning of the bus was “more about idle hands than hate.”

This week, Crown Heights bustled with residents going about their business — blacks, Jews and others walking side by side on streets.

The area is still mostly black, according to city figures. But once largely poor, it has grown steadily wealthier in recent years.

RICHARD DREW/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An Orthodox Jewish boy peeks Wednesday into the school bus that was burned May 8 in the Crown Heights section of the Brooklyn borough of New York.