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Private Policing COULD NOT Be Worse…
The DC Sniper Rampage: The Biggest Police Debacle of the Century?
Those who forget police debacles could be the victims of the next law enforcement fiasco. Former Montgomery County, Maryland, police chief Charles Moose passed away on Thanksgiving Day. He became famous as the most prominent law enforcement official during a three-week sniper rampage in the Washington area in 2002. The Washington Post ran a front-page piece on his death, and career and local officials hailed him as a “great leader” and “terrific” while the media touted him as a “hero.”
But Moose was the mastermind of one of the biggest law enforcement pratfalls in this century. After the snipers were finally captured after killing ten people, Moose declared, “Twenty-two days felt like forever. It could have easily been 22 weeks.” Actually, if private citizens and the media had not acted proactively, it could have been twenty-two weeks. Criminologist Susan Paisner observed in late 2002 in the Washington Post that the two sniper suspects “were caught despite [Moose] and the task force’s efforts, not because of them.”
Blunders by Moose, the first black police chief in Montgomery County, and other law enforcement officials boosted the sniper death toll. Because the first shootings occurred in Montgomery County, Moose took charge of the local law enforcement response.
The sniper case represents a deadly case of racial profiling gone awry. Moose decided early on that the killers were white guys in a white van. As a result, police ignored a slew of evidence that the killers were actually black guys in a ratty old car with out-of-state license plates. Several eyewitnesses reported to police that they had seen an old Chevrolet Caprice at the scenes of shootings, but police scorned their reports. They spotted the snipers’ blue car and recorded its out-of-state license plates at least ten different times during the month of the killings; the vehicle was reported to have been stopped or seen five times at roadblocks established immediately after shootings. But because they were searching for a white van or truck, police disregarded the suspects again and again. One federal investigator later complained to the Los Angeles Times, “The car was screaming, ‘Stop me.’ It’s dilapidated. It’s got Jersey tags. It’s got a homemade window tint.”
President George W. Bush announced that the sniper attacks were “a form of terrorism” and boasted of “lending all the resources of the Federal Government” to the investigation. But the FBI were as incompetent and incorrigible as Moose. Prior to the snipers’ rampage, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ignored reports from five different people in Washington State (where John Allen Muhammad lived) who warned about Muhammad’s comments about killing police, his interest in buying silencers for his rifle, and his visit to a gunsmith to inquire about modifying the rifle to make it more easily concealed.
More than seven hundred FBI agents were involved in the case. FBI trainees were brought in to staff the telephone tip lines at the Montgomery County Police headquarters. The FBI, scorning the technological revolutions of the prior half century, relied on the same methods the bureau had used to pursue John Dillinger in the 1930s. Instead of entering tips from the public into a computer database, FBI trainees would write out the information by hand and stack the reports into piles marked “immediate,” “priority,” or “routine.” FBI agents would then drive the stacks of reports to other locales where the snipers attacked, including Fairfax County and Richmond, Virginia. The Washington Post reported complaints by numerous lawmen that “the FBI’s problems handling thousands of phone tips are slowing and hampering the probe.”
When the FBI trainees were not laboriously scrawling down the latest tip, they were busy hanging up on the snipers. In a note attached to a tree after the ninth shooting, the snipers complained that operators at the tip line had hung up on them five times. The note denounced police “incompitence” [sic] and declared, “We have tried to contact you to start negotiation. These people took [our] calls for a hoax or a joke, so your failure to respond has cost you five lives.”
At the scene of an Ashland, Virginia, shooting, the killers left a note with a demand for money in a ziplock bag. But no law enforcement official bothered to read the note before it was shipped off to check for fingerprints. The FBI and the police dismally failed to exploit the bevy of clues in the note and in the other material in the ziplock bag. If the note had been publicized—like the Unabomber’s manifesto—savvy citizens might have fingered at least one of the culprits much sooner.
Instead of using common sense and exploiting excellent leads, the feds unleashed Pentagon spy planes to track all vehicles in the entire Washington area. Bush Pentagon appointee John Poindexter declared that the sniper case illustrated how total information awareness surveillance could have help detect the killer’s car. The spy planes may have violated the Posse Comitatus Act (which prohibits using the military for domestic law enforcement) but they provided no information that solved the case.
Moose took a command-and-control approach that left citizens in the dark at the same time that law enforcement ignored a tidal wave of damning evidence. “When we have people from the media interviewing witnesses and publishing reports, we get confusion,” Chief Moose complained. He was enraged when the Washington Post and a local television channel reported that a tarot card had been found at the site, later blaming them for five additional deaths due to the disclosure. At a press conference, Moose shouted, “I have not received any message that the citizens of Montgomery County want Channel 9 or The Washington Post or any other media outlet to solve this case. If they do, then let me know.”
But it was a leak of key information that led to the apprehension of the snipers. News media had been listening to police scanners and, on October 23, heard the renewed suspicions about the Caprice. Both MSNBC and CNN broadcast the license plate and car description hours. Within six hours, an alert citizen phoned in a tip that the suspects’ car was at an interstate rest stop in Frederick County, Maryland which a SWAT team quickly swarmed to arrest the suspects.
The initial sainthood that Moose received after the snipers were apprehended was truncated by his buck chasing. Montgomery County officials are prohibited from profiting from their government jobs but Moose speedily signed a $170,000 book deal to reveal his account of the sniper manhunt. He resigned under pressure after a local ethics commission refused to let him profit from the case. Numerous other government officials complained that the speedy publication of Moose’s book risked undermining the prosecution of the snipers. The commission also discovered that Moose violated ethics rules by failing to disclose a $10,000 payment he received from Marriott hotels after he claimed to be a victim of racial discrimination while staying at a resort in Hawaii. Moose initially demanded $200,000 from Marriott after he wandered into an unfinished area of the resort reserved for employees. “Moose was confronted by a hotel employee. When the chief was asked to produce proof he was a guest at the hotel, in the form of a room key, an argument ensued,” the Washington Post reported. If only I could pocket ten grand each time a hotel staffer asked me a question!
The real lesson of the 2002 sniper rampage was that neither local nor federal law enforcement could be trusted to protect citizens against dire threats. The Washington area was traumatized for weeks by two dimwitted psychopaths who rode around brazenly shooting people from the trunk of their ancient Chevrolet. If a team of trained, savvy terrorists had launched the same type of attacks, the death toll would likely have been vastly higher.
Commenting on Moose’s death, Montgomery County executive Marc Elrich praised him for providing “a calming presence in the midst of the terror and fear that consumed our County.” Politicians valorize political appointees to shroud government failures. Don’t expect local politicians to admit that Moose had blood on his hands due to his incompetence in capturing the snipers.
Maharil Diskin on HIS DAY’S Galus Remainers…
Israel Torah – Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz
Feb 23, 2021
Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz, Senior Lecturer at Yeshivas Ohr Sameach Israel Torah – http://www.BringThemHome.org.il
Excellent Piece in Haaretz on the Current Wave of Torah-Observant Aliyah
Ultra-Orthodox Aliyah to Israel Is Breaking Records. Here’s Why
For decades, Haredim in the Diaspora rejected the notion of immigrating to Israel. No more. Now, ultra-Orthodox American Jews see themselves as ‘the next great frontier in aliyah’ and are moving to Israel in increasing numbers
Nov. 30, 2021 2:43 PM
Nesanel Cadle, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi from the suburbs of Philadelphia, will be moving to Israel this summer with his wife and five children. “B’ezras Hashem [with God’s help],” he makes sure to add.
They will be joined by 70 other East Coast families, all heading to a new English-speaking, Haredi neighborhood being built especially for them on the outskirts of Afula, northern Israel.
In a phone call from his home in Yardley, where he runs a small shul, Cadle explains what prompted the move: “Jews don’t feel as comfortable as they once did in America.”
Menachem Leibowitz, along with his wife and eight children, moved three months ago to Ramat Beit Shemesh, a popular destination for religious, English-speaking immigrants.
Since moving to Israel from Lakewood, N.J. – one of the largest Haredi hubs in North America – Leibowitz has been spearheading an initiative to bring over two large groups of ultra-Orthodox families from the East Coast in 2022. One group consists mainly of families from Lakewood and the other of families spread out across the East Coast.
They will be heading to two new neighborhoods being built especially for them: one in a town up north and the other in a town down south. “The mayors wanted to keep it quiet, so I agreed not to publish the names of these towns until the families started moving in,” Leibowitz says.
Within the next few months, the first group of about 20 families is expected to land in Israel, and the plan is to bring over another 100 families by the summer. Arrangements are being made, says Leibowitz, so that in those families where the men study full-time in kolels (yeshivas for married men) and the women are the main breadwinners, these women will be able to continue working remotely.
“In the past few years, there has been a major upsurge in the desire to move to Eretz Yisroel within the Haredi community in the U.S.,” says Leibowitz, who like many ultra-Orthodox Jews prefers to use the biblical name for Israel. “In fact, it’s been overwhelming, and we are already laying the groundwork for other locations.”
Rabbi Pesach Lerner is the founder and chairman of Eretz Hakodesh, the first Haredi slate ever to stand in World Zionist Congress elections. It did phenomenally well in the election held last year, emerging as the third largest party.
The decision to launch such a party was seen as a sign of the changing winds within a community that has traditionally distanced itself from Zionism and the modern Jewish state – often to the point of outright hostility. Indeed, most Haredim were vehemently opposed the establishment of the State of Israel, out of a belief that Jewish sovereignty must wait for the coming of the Messiah. As far as they were concerned, better no state at all than one run by a bunch of nonbelievers.
“In the past, there didn’t used to be any conversation at all about aliyah within the American Haredi community,” says Lerner. “Now that conversation is happening.”
That is why Eretz Hakodesh has made securing more funding and resources for Haredi aliyah one of its top priorities since venturing into the world of Zionist politics.
With his “encouragement,” as Lerner terms it, Nefesh B’Nefesh – the private organization that handles aliyah from North America on behalf of the Israeli government – recently created a designated Haredi desk to service this particular group.
“There needs to be someone who talks the talk and walks the walk and can guide these people,” Lerner says.
Within the Haredi community in Israel, it is common for men to study full-time in kolels and for families to live off of government stipends. By contrast, Lerner notes, the community he represents in the United States tends to consist mainly of businesspeople and professionals.
“For many of them, a big concern was how they would make a living if they ever moved to Israel – and one of the important things they learned during the pandemic is that it is possible to work remotely,” he says. “What has also become clear to them is that they can earn a lot less in Israel yet live better because they don’t have to pay tuition for private schools for their kids, which for this community is one of the biggest expenses.”
On average, about 3,000 North American Jews immigrate to Israel every year. According to figures made available by Nefesh B’Nefesh, about 40 percent of those who have come in recent years identify as either ultra-Orthodox, Chabad or Orthodox – in other words, more strictly observant than Modern Orthodox. As far as Lerner is concerned, that qualifies them as Haredi.
“I was shocked when I discovered it was that many,” he says. (Presumably, many of those who identify as plain “Orthodox” are what is known in the United States as “yeshivish” and in Israel as “Chardali” – an acronym for Haredi-Dati-Leumi, or “ultra-Orthodox religious Zionist.”)
Shattering the taboo
Avraham Shusteris, 36, grew up in Fairlawn, N.J., in what he describes as a “secular Russian-Jewish family.” While participating in a Birthright trip, he developed a strong connection to Israel and came back a few years later to study in a Haredi yeshiva. He had been considering aliyah for a while, but it was only after a conversation with Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky – a leading Haredi authority in Israel – that he finally decided to act. “He encouraged me to take my young family and move to Israel,” recounts Shusteris, who has been living in Beit Shemesh with his wife and four children for the past three years.
Aliyah, says Shusteris, was considered a “taboo” subject in Haredi society in the United States until very recently. But a combination of growing antisemitism, often directed against ultra-Orthodox Jews, and the rising cost of living had led many to rethink their future in America, he says. Indeed, notes Shusteris, several prominent Haredi rabbis in the United States have even issued public statements encouraging religious Jews to leave.
“While religious Jews have always known they are not at home in the Diaspora, they are really starting to feel it more acutely in the post-coronavirus world,” he says. “At the same time, the opportunities for remote work have expanded beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. That means living in Israel and working for an American company is more realistic than ever.”
A trained accountant, Shusteris notes that he himself worked remotely for a firm in Philadelphia while living in Israel for several years.
Earlier this year, he set up an organization called the Nachliel Project, which aims to boost Haredi aliyah from the United States. The organization produces videos about life in different English-speaking Haredi communities around Israel, organizes tours for potential immigrants and publishes articles in the U.S. Haredi press stressing the advantage of life in Israel for Torah-observant Jews.
Ultra-Orthodox Americans, he believes, are “the next great frontier in aliyah” and a “natural fit” for Israel.
“They have a natural affinity to the Land of Israel by virtue of the fact that they pray toward Israel three times a day, mention Israel countless times throughout the day in their Torah learning and in the blessings they make, visit Israel on their vacations, and send their children to Israel to study,” he explains.
Another factor behind this new wave of aliyah is the growing sense of political and social alienation among ultra-Orthodox Jews in the United States.
It began with the coronavirus crisis when, as Cadle notes, Haredi Jews were “singled out” for not conforming with the rules and blamed for the spread of the disease. It continued with Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election and the rise of the progressive left.
Indeed, Haredim in the United States were among Trump’s staunchest supporters, sharing many of same “family values” – i.e., opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights – as his evangelical base. “Today, they are witnessing the rapid decline of morality and values in the U.S.,” says Shusteris.
Cadle puts it even more bluntly: “The move to the left in the United States, particularly the social values it represents, is very unsettling to many of us.”
Peripheral vision
While Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh remain popular destinations for Haredi immigrants from the United States, the high cost of real estate in these big cities is causing many to consider alternative locations in remote parts of the country, where housing is more affordable. But rather than come on their own, they prefer to move together in groups, which provides them with the benefits of a built-in support system of other English speakers.
Yoel Berman, who grew up in Los Angeles and lives in Sanhedria, a Haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem, is the brains behind a new initiative that aims to draw English-speaking Haredi immigrants to what he describes as “out-of-town communities.”
“My target audience includes both married yeshiva students who are here already and might continue staying for the long term if they knew about more affordable or suitable opportunities out of town, as well as people in the U.S. who might also consider aliyah if they knew about such opportunities,” says 40-year-old Berman, a scribe by profession, whose venture is called “Avira D’Eretz Yisroel” (“Land of Israel Atmosphere”).
Berman came to Israel on his own at age 19 to study at the prestigious Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and never left. When asked what prompted his aliyah, he responds: “As someone who is very much connected to Jewish history, the fulfillment of a 2,000-year-old national dream, shared with many of our nation’s great people whom I looked up to as role models – the Gaon of Vilna, for example, the Baal Shem Tov and the Chatam Sofer – very much appealed to me,” he says. “I specifically connected to those who not only saw Israel as a holy place where they could live out the remainder of their lives, but also a place where Jews would once again live and thrive as a nation. I see myself continuing in their footsteps.”
Chaim Ekstein, who grew up in the Hasidic Satmar community, moved to Jerusalem with his wife and seven children just over a year ago. They would have come earlier were it not for the pandemic, says Ekstein, 43, who owns an insurance and investment company.
Ekstein says he had wanted to make the move 12 years earlier, but it took that much time for his wife to come around and agree to leave their home in the Hasidic community of Monroe, N.Y.
“Many people in the Haredi world grow up with a sense of disconnect from Eretz Yisroel because they’ve lived so long in the galus [exile],” he says. “For me, fulfilling the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisroel is a major part of my Judaism.”
Circumstances have changed dramatically since the early days of the state, notes Ekstein, when leading Haredi authorities denounced Zionism and discouraged religious Jews from moving to Israel.
“There were deep concerns then that because Israel was run by secular Jews, it would be hard to remain religious there,” he says. “But today, there is no place in the world that it is easier to be a religious Jew than Israel.”
When asked if the group of 70 families he is bringing to Israel this summer are Zionists, Cadle pauses for a moment. “That’s a good question,” he says. “Let’s put it this way: Every one of them loves the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, as well as the idea of living in a Jewish state. At the same time, I have to say that they have very little in common with secular Zionists.”
Why We Don’t Blow Trumpets In Distress Like the Torah Says – Iggros Moshe
DAF YOMI תענית י”ב ע”ב
R. Moshe Feinstein Zt”l (אג”מ או”ח א’ : קס”ט) writes that since the Rambam counts in (ספר המצות (מ”ע נ”ט the Mitzvah of blowing trumpets during הקרבת הקרבן & when we are גוזר תענית, both, as one Mitzvah therefore it is מסתבר that the Torah requires us to use the same חצוצרות from the בית המקדש that are used for the קרבנות.
עיין באבי עזרי הל’ כלי המקדש פ”ג ה”ה