First Rule of Urban Journalism: White People Do Not Riot
The president of the Black Student Union when we were in college, a native of Southern California, used to comment that in Los Angeles, "When white people do it, it's a melee; when black people do it, it's a riot." We were reminded of that aphorism today by Jewblogger Steven I. Weiss, who looked at local press coverage of a, um, disturbance in Brooklyn last night.
It seems a mob of angry Hasidim attacked a police station. According to NY1 and the Daily News, "[h]undreds of Borough Park residents rushed the 66th precinct station house chanting 'No justice, no peace,'" "[t]wo garbage fires were set during the melee, which stretched for several blocks and closed numerous streets," "[p]rotesters threw garbage and hundreds of residents blocked the street," the crowd "set fire to old magazines, fruit boxes and other trash up and down the avenue," there were "at least seven blazes," and "[d]emonstrators smashed the windows of one police cruiser and torched another by throwing a gasoline-soaked rag into its backseat."
Sounds like a riot to us, no? Well, actually no. It's a...
• "Protest," "melee." — NY1
• "Protest." — NYT
• "Protest," "melee." — NYDN
• "Protest." — NYP
Ain't it nice to live in such a tolerant town?
