London Police Arrest 16-year-old for Spate of Assaults on Jews

London Police Arrest 16-year-old for Spate of Assaults on Jews

The news follows a “hate crimes pandemic” reported by the neighborhood watch group that protects London’s Hasidic Jewish community.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The Metropolitan Police of London arrested on Tuesday a suspect accused of assaulting several Jewish residents of the Stamford Hill section of the borough of Hackney.

The news follows a “hate crimes pandemic” reported by Shomrim (Stamford Hill), a neighborhood watch group that protects London’s Hasidic Jewish community — the largest in Europe —on November 1.

In one incident, a known local assaulted a Jewish resident of Stamford Hill while yelling, “You Jews, you think you run the world.” In another, a man broke into a synagogue’s school, stealing $340 worth of salmon and, Shomrim said, “leaving the children without a proper lunch.”

A 16-year-old, responsible for six of the eight hate crimes that occurred has “been arrested for those offences and is currently in custody,” according to a communication from Safer Neighbourhoods Hackney (SNH) shared with The Algemeiner.

“We would like to reassure the community in relation to hate crime and to thank the Shomrim for their help and assistance on this matter,” SNH inspector Robert Bradley said. “Safer Neighbourhood officers will be out in the are conducting high visible patrols to provide reassurance.”

Antisemitic hate crimes are an ongoing problem in London, where 466 have already been recorded this year.

In July, a woman wielding a wooden stick approached a Jewish woman near the Seven Sisters area and declared,”I am doing it because you are Jew,” while striking her over the head and pouring liquid on her. The next day, the same woman, described by an eyewitness as a “serial racist, chased a mother and her baby with a wooden stick after spraying liquid on the baby.

In other, separate episodes reported by Shomrim, a woman threatened Jewish congregants leaving Shabbat services on Friday night, shouting, “f*** you Jews, I will kill you,” while another account described “hundreds of Jewish men and boys” being similarly harassed as they returned from synagogue.

On Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) convicted Abdullah Qureshi, who trekked 200 miles from West Yorkshire to Stamford Hill to assault Jewish residents, of racially or religiously motivated assault and bodily harm.

Qureshi, who had pled guilty to two other related assaults, attacked a 14-year-old boy and a 64-year-old man walking to a synagogue over the course of two hours on August 18, 2021, according to prosecutors.

Not all assailants face criminal charges, however. In February, Dave Rich, Head of Policy at Community Security Trust (CST), argued that “too few cases reach court” despite that nearly a quarter of religiously motivated hate crimes in London target the Jewish community.

‘The wheels of justice of justice seem to be stuck,” he wrote.

Andrew Bernard contributed reporting for this story.