Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mayor criticizes DA for Rabbi abuse-gatekeepers

NYTimes   Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday sharply criticized the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, over his handling of child sexual abuse cases among the borough’s large ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Mr. Bloomberg said through a spokesman that he “completely disagrees” with Mr. Hynes’s decision to not object to the position of an influential ultra-Orthodox advocacy group on reporting allegations of child sexual abuse. The group announced last year that adherent Jews must obtain permission from a rabbi before reporting such allegations to district attorneys or the police.

7 comments :

  1. there was a serious problem in Brooklyn. It might still be there. the problem is hard to define and hard to know from where it came from and why. this would require a lot of digging and research. But to be as short as i can the problem is that the Jewish orthodox agencies that were meant to protect children became factories of sexual child abuse, and was supported by the government. Why or how this came about I don't know. But to me it was clear that the fact that a child abuse factory could be an integral part of the Jewish community and have the courts in its pockets mean t that the very essence of the Constitution of the USA was already gone. (in particular i am referring to the 9th and ten th amendment). To some degree i can understand the local DA in that the arrangement was to leave the Orthodox community alone and to allow them to police their own. This was the same arrangement that existed in mea sheraim for about 5o years and worked there well. but in Brooklyn this arrangement lead to massive corruption and child abuse on an unimaginable scale.
    [i am not saying i agree with this arrangement in mea sheraim either. There have been gross abuses there also. but in Brooklyn the abuse of children by these organizations was on a level that eclipsed anything else i had ever seen anywhere,]

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    1. To me it seems that this is the problem with elected DA's and Judges. It makes them pander to their voting base. If every single Hareidi will turn out to vote for a single person because the Rabbanim have agreed he is the one, that is a very powerful voting block, when other voter turnout is so low.

      In the end however it leads to them doing the will of the most powerful lobbyists and not what is in the best interest of justice.

      Here with the destruction of chidlren we see that it actually breeds injustice, and with the Shalom Rubashkin ruling we see it there as well.

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    2. A powerful voting lobby is a massive iceberg in the ocean of politic maneuvering. If the word on the street is "We deliver the votes...if you act to our wishes", then justice will never be served.

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    3. Adam, you are living in a fantasy land. Nothing you wrote is based on even an iota of truth.

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  2. "elected DA's and Judges"
    That is a possibility. But that would not explain the supreme court.
    I think rather that human institutions are just plain problematic and are in a constant state of flux. It seems the Constitution of the USA worked for awhile. Maybe it would still work if people believed in the principles behind it but that is also gone. With faith in the principles, there is nothing to stop government from achieving absolute power. Nowadays parents have to prove to the government that they are good parents or the government gives the children to the Orthodox child agencies which then proceed to give the child into the hands of child abuses that are part of the Congregational of the power rabbis in Brooklyn.

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  3. Puleez, the fact the Hizzoner is once again criticizing the DA is meaningless.. He has historically never missed an opportunity to criticize the DA. It's no secret that he would love nothing more than having control over that office also..

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  4. Saichel - just a littleMay 13, 2012 at 8:53 PM

    It is laughable, though tragic, that some commenters like Adam are so poor;y informed, and are so comsumed by hatred that they will contrue anything to advance their point. Let's look at a few facts.

    There is, and has been a problem of abuse within the frum community.

    This problem has been swept under the rug for the longest time. This was grossly unfair (to put it lightly) to victims and their families. This was also unfair to those victims were were yet to be traumatized.

    The frum community, for various reasons, is hesitant to approach the services of the DA office and the courts.

    Those in positions of authority and leadership have been neglectfully ignorant of what abuse is. Laws did not mandate their education on this, and they freely paskened about such matters even though they knew nothing of the subject matter.

    Since nothing was being done internally, offenders were free to roam the world, seeking positions that were risky and dangerous. There was no mechanism to oust them from their jobs, and when they left, there was no tracking mechanism to insure they do not just repeat their offenses elsewhere.

    The frum community has always believed that we were ethically and morally superior to the rest of the world. To this, it was widely believed that anything described about such problems existing elsewhere would not be similar at all to our community. This is a prevalent form of denial that still exists.

    There are halachos about mesira, with specific guidelines of when it is both permissible and required to utilize secular authorities. While rabbonim may know these halachos, the general public knows only that mesira is a terrible thing, with no idea about when it is halachically mandated.

    With more information, and a heaping measure of public disgrace, the leading from organizations are taking several healthy steps. There is much more awareness now than ever before. Yeshivos and schools are participating in activities for staff, parent bodies, and students to disseminate information about personal safety. The subject is being addressed constructively at many levels. Rabbonim are learning factual information about the subject, instead of assuming that their knowledge of Shas and Poskim has prepared them adequately to address this.

    Referring to our yeshivos as child abuse factories is both a blatant lie as well as blasphemous. Your chutzpah is boundless. There have been incidents, not epidemic, and many have been dealt with in various ways. I am no happier than you with how they were handled, and I observe, with pleasure, that the progress has been spectacular. And I am not ready to rest comfortably that the problem has been solved because there is still much to do.

    The NYT has once again dragged a hefty portion of bias into their article, and Bloomie fell for it. The assumption is that there is some rivalry between them. I neither know nor could I care. But Hynes works for the State, not the City. So let Bloomie pout. I doubt anyone cares much, except the NYT and those liberal minded self-hating Jews who believe anything printed there.

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