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Shomrim Wants Gun-Happy Alleged Perv Put Away Forever
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 4, 2010
Modified Sep 4, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 4, 2010
Modified Sep 4, 2010
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Four members of the Shomrim volunteer patrol in Borough Park are recovering from gunshot wounds suffered when they confronted a suspect they were following on Thursday night. The suspect, David Flores, who attempted to run away from them, fired at them. The Borough Park patrol's coordinator told the Daily News that Flores "deserves to stay in jail for the rest of his life."
Flores was being tailed because the patrol, which is unarmed, received calls about a man fondling himself while leering at young girls. Crown Height Info explains, "Shomrim's first encounter with this pervert took place Wednesday, when they received calls regarding a pervert exposing himself to children. Volunteers responded to those incidents, chased the suspect, but he got away. However, early this evening, Thursday residents spotted the pervert in action again and alerted Shomrim. The Shomrim headquarters put out an alert and had volunteers converged at the incident. Many volunteers responded and started to track and pursue the suspect." He has nine prior arrests and had recently pleaded guilty to public lewdness.
The NY Times looks at the Borough Park Shomrim operation: In the Orthodox Jewish community where most people would more likely call Shomrim than 911, "the calls go to the Brooklyn shomrim communications center — a phone in a truck tire repair shop owned by Sam and Mendy Rosenberg. The brothers go from fixing tires to answering about 100 calls a day and then dispatching shomrim responders by radio." Mendy Rosenberg said, "We have a faster response than the police, about a minute and a half," and bragged that he can mobilize the community to block a suspect who is trying to flee by car, "I can shut down the streets in half of Brooklyn in seconds — instant traffic jam. We’ve trapped many perps that way."
Another bit of history: The Times says, "The Borough Park shomrim was formed more than 20 years ago and informally called the Bakery Boys because the original members were bakers who delivered bread at night and saw a lot of car break-ins."
Tagged
borough park
brooklyn
david flores
neighborhood patrol
nypd
shomrim
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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