Jew brutally beat by policemen – acquitted from all allegations

District Attorney of New York, Charles Haynes, gave a press release issued yesterday, which decided to dismiss all charges against Ehud Levi, a Jewish student who was beaten brutally by police and charged with assaulting a police officer and other charges.

Two weeks ago, on Shemini Atzeres, police broke at four am into "Aliya" institute in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, and arrested Ehud Levi, 21 year old student, who was sleeping at the Institute. A new guard at the Institute did not know that Ehud was sleeping there with the permission of the manager, and decided to call the police.

Policemen who arrived at the scene beat Halevy, who refused to be arrested unjustly and cruelly. Other police officers were called to the scene, and also used pepper spray.

Fortunately for Halevy, the entire incident was recorded on security tapes.

Ehud Levi was bruised and taken beaten into custody, where he was jailed for four days. Police also charged Halevy with assaulting a police officer and additional charges. Crown Heights neighborhood activists protested strongly about the conduct of the police, and posted the film in the media.

The documentation of the incident caused an uproar in the Jewish community in New York, and the police had to suspend one of the policemen who was seen brutally beating Halevy. However, the police refused to cancel the charges against Levi, who was charged with resisting arrest.

Dov Hikind, a member of the Legislature of the State of New York, held a press conference along with officials of Crown Heights, which strongly condemned the attack, while demanding the elimination of all allegations against Halevy.

Despite the district attorney notice of cancellation of charges, Halevy's lawyers are not going to give up, and are getting ready to demand monetary compensation for the physical and psychological damage caused to him.

At the press conference held yesterday Dov Hikind said that Halevy suffered long abuse by the policemen which started with beating he received and continued with his being kept in custody for four days in jail, like a dangerous criminal. "Unfortunately, there are many cases in which police harassed innocent citizens without being able to prove otherwise. Halevy in this case was saved thanks security cameras which documented the incident and proved beyond any doubt that Halevy is a victim and not the attacker.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!