Vanguard News Network

Claiming police had mistreated a 75-year-old man after a routine traffic stop, hundreds of residents stormed the streets and set fires as officers in riot gear fanned out to clear the crowd.

Police denied mistreating the man, Arthur Schick, after he was pulled over Tuesday night in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn for talking on his cell phone while driving. Police said he resisted the officers during the stop, which occurred around 6:30 p.m., and was arrested with two other people who meddled in the incident.

New York is among a group of states that prohibit talking on hand-held cell phones while driving.

Protesters set small fires and blocked streets in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood while Schick’s car sat parked in front of the bakery bearing his family’s name.

Dozens of young Orthodox Jews in traditional black suits and hats gathered on street corners in the neighborhood, which sees very little crime. Charred garbage pockmarked the streets.

Police officers herded away onlookers, who yelled back angrily.

The crowd had mostly dispersed by late Tuesday night.

Sariel Widawsky, co-owner of Schick’s Bakery, said he saw the traffic stop through the front window of his store, which once was owned by Schick’s mother. He said he saw police push Schick, whom he described as a friend he’s known since 1960.

“They pushed Arthur against the car and physically manhandled him in a way unbefitting such a well-respected and liked member of the community,” Widawsky said. “He shouldn’t be treated like that.” He said police “acted as if they were going to a riot, pulling out batons and spraying Mace and abusing their power.” He said people at the scene begged the officers to stop.

Yossi Baumann, a bakery shipping manager who was on the sidewalk wrapping a pallet, said the police called for backup after Schick resisted their handcuffs. He said four officers picked Schick up horizontally and hurled him into a van.

Other witnesses and friends said it’s possible Schick, a caterer of weddings and bat mitzvahs, didn’t hear instructions from the officers because he uses a hearing aid. They said the police, who twisted Schick’s arms behind his back, had overreacted. Some residents said an increase in traffic tickets had raised tensions in the community.

Schick’s friends said a lawyer told them he was taken to a police station and spent time in a cell before being released.

Schick’s wife, reached by telephone at home around midnight, said her husband was asleep and declined to comment further.

The incident happened on one of the busiest shopping days before Passover, the weeklong Jewish commemoration of the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

Original. [More photos through link.]