CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Binyomin Lifshitz, a volunteer in Shomrim and the publisher and editor of CrownHeights.info was arrested early yesterday as he and 6 other Shomrim members made an appearance in court following the incident where Shomrim were ambushed and attacked inside 749 Eastern Parkway.

5 months ago, Shomrim were called to 749 Eastern Pkwy because of a dispute over a bed, 3 Shomrim members who responded were ambushed and assaulted in the room by over 20 ‘tzfati’ bochurim and were forced to call for backup and police assistance. Click Here for that story.

Elements of the Shmira leadership along with their lawyer Levi ‘Paul’ Hubner set out on a mission that Motzoai Shabbos, and viciously masserd on as many as 9 Shomrim members, and incurring the arrest of 7 of them along with one member of Anash.

More in the Extended Article.

Shmira members took the ‘tzvati’ bochurim in the Shmira car to the hospital, after Hatzalah refused to treat them because the Bochurim didn’t have any injuries and Hatzalah didn’t want to get involved. At the hospital they had doctor’s reports made and from there Shmira ferried them to the 77th precinct to make police reports against Shomrim members.

Yesterday, when Binyomin Lifshitz stepped out of the courtroom, he walked into two men who asked for identification without identifying themselves as police officers, he later learned that they were Detectives Mencire and Doe, but he recognized them from his dealings with police as a member of Shomrim, they then placed him in handcuffs and drove him back to the 71st Precinct.

The stated reason for the arrest was a ‘violation of an order of protection’, which is granted to a witness in an ongoing trial, Moshe Gurfinkel walked into the police station on Motzoai Shabbos together with Paul Hubner and made a police report alleging that Binyomin Lifshitz along with a group of his friends walked passed and said “you snitch, were gonna get you”, a claim which he vehemently denies.

While being held in the precinct many influential people got involved and tried to help the case along and get Binyomin Lifshitz out quicker, during which time the police called in Gurfinkel in order to substantiate his story and give him an opportunity to recant, which he did not. Instead as he walked by the cell Binyomin Lifshitz was being held in, dressed in a hat and jacket along with the little yellow pin on his jacket, he smiled ear to ear and laughed.

“We are dealing with pathetic group of people who will stop at nothing to try and destroy the Shomrim and this community, to the point that they go and make these libelous mesiros without any permission for a Rov, that’s besides the fact that these claims are totally fabricated just to make our work for the community harder for us” said one of the Shomrim coordinators.

After being ‘processed’ Mr. Lifshitz was transferred to Central Booking where after a short stay he appeared before a judge who had him released.



Posted By - Techie on 05/14/08 at 16:45