Gothamist History: The Crown Heights Riots Turn 15

A quick way to recognize just how dramatically New York City has transformed in the past two decades is to consider this fact: Fifteen years ago today a station wagon with four members of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement inside ran over and killed seven-year-old Gavin Cato in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. From the book Crown Heights:

Gavin Cato's death set off three days of riots. Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian Orthodox Jew doing research in New York City for his doctoral dissertation at the University of Melbourne, was stabbed to death a few blocks away by a group of young black men. Cato's and Rosenbaum's deaths became heated symbols in a political and cultural struggle that pitted not just Hasidic Jews against black residents of Crown Heights, but also black radicals against the black-dominated Brooklyn political establishment; the black mayor and his black police commissioner against the largely white police force; the United States Department of Justice against New York politicians; and the leadership of Manhattan-based Jewish organizations against Jews from the outer boroughs. The riot strained race relations in the city, led some to question the viability of urban liberalism and the black-Jewish political entente, raised concerns about the extent of black anti-Semitism, and led the federal judiciary to broaden the scope of federal civil rights legislation to include Jews.

The Crown Heights riots were one of the uglier chapters in our city's history and are to this day a highly charged and debated subject. Much of the current political climate in our city still reflects the violence and rhetoric that emerged from those three days. If you want to get a grip on New York City racial politics, there is no better place to start then there.

"The New Ultra Violence" cover of New York Magazine.