De Blasio: Planned Festival Shows How Far Crown Heights Has Come Since Riots
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that he supports a planned festival marking the 25th anniversary of the four days of deadly riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
As WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported, the mayor said the festival will symbolize how far Crown Heights has come.
"The Crown Heights community, over a quarter century, has achieved a miracle in terms of binding a community back together," de Blasio said. "I've spent a lot of time in Crown Heights and it's extraordinary. It's one of the best good news stories you're ever going to find."
The festival promises fun for all ages, with food, music, rides, and even arts and crafts. But some said it is an insensitive way to recognize one of the worst race riots in the city's history.
"My mother was disgusted. It's just not fair to her. It's true that I lost a brother, but she lost a child," Norman Rosenbaum said earlier this week. "And it is just totally inappropriate – inappropriate."
The riots tore through the neighborhood in 1991, stoked by tensions between the Jewish and black communities living side-by-side.
PHOTO GALLERY: 1991 Crown Heights Riots
The rioting began Aug. 19 of that year after Gavin Cato, 7, who was black, was struck and killed by a driver belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch community. A car from a Hasidic motorcade carrying the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, ran onto the sidewalk to the horror of onlookers.
Three hours later, a gang of angry black Crown Heights residents descended on and fatally stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum, Norman Rosenbaum's brother, who was visiting from Australia.
Anger and fear ruled the night, as the twin tragedies led to mayhem. For more than two days, stores were looted, police cars were burned and bottles hurled.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, whose office is one of the sponsors of the One Crown Heights Festival, said it is all about bringing people together. Adams asked Norman Rosenbaum to walk the festival with him to show unity and tolerance, but Rosenbaum said no.
"I think I would be contributing to the intellectual dishonesty," Rosenbaum said earlier this week. "This is not a time for cotton candy. This is not a time for rides and amusements. It wasn't funny then, and it's not funny now."
The three days of rioting left nearly 200 people injured and about $1 million in property damage.
The festival is on Sunday at Brower Park, and it will be preceded by a commemoration ceremony at the Jewish Children's Museum.
