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										<img title="Image: http://www.myvivvo.com/thumbnail.php?file=art.crown.heights.ap_126889447.jpg&amp;size=article_medium" src="http://www.myvivvo.com/thumbnail.php?file=art.crown.heights.ap_126889447.jpg&amp;size=article_medium" alt="Racial tensions brewing in Crown Heights">
										
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								<span>Seventeen years after race riots left the streets of one New 
York City neighborhood bloodied, tensions are rising again there between
 Orthodox Jews and blacks.<br><br>First, a black man was badly beaten. 
Weeks later, a Jewish teenager said he was attacked by two young blacks 
while riding his bicycle, and angry Jewish residents took to the streets
 with signs saying "Jewish blood is not cheap!" and "Every Jew a .22."<br><br>And
 along the way, the district attorney accused an Orthodox Jewish street 
patrol of vigilantism and compared the group to street gangs like the 
Bloods and Crips.<br><br>The strife has revived painful memories of the 
1991 riots in the Brooklyn neighborhood called Crown Heights, which is 
home to about 15,000 Orthodox Jews and more than 130,000 blacks.<br><br>As summer approaches, leaders from both sides are braced for trouble.<br><br>"One
 small incident could escalate into something beyond our grasp," warned 
Richard Green, head of the Crown Heights Youth Collective, a group he 
said inspires the races "to interact instead of react."<br><br>The group
 was started after the 1991 riots that exploded after a black child was 
accidentally struck by a station wagon in the motorcade of a Jewish 
spiritual leader. The 7-year-old boy, who was pinned under the vehicle, 
later died of his injuries. In the ensuing unrest, which lasted three 
days, a rabbinical student was mortally stabbed by a black mob.<br><br>To
 quell fears of new unrest, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly visited 
Crown Heights earlier this month and stepped up police patrols. Officers
 also are perched atop a tower, keeping 24-hour watch over the world 
headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement.<br><br>"It's a very delicate situation in Crown Heights, a bubble of tension," said Geoffrey Davis, a longtime black resident.<br><br>District
 Attorney Charles Hynes has convened a grand jury to probe the April 14 
assault on Andrew Charles, a 20-year-old son of a police detective. He 
told police that a man on a bicycle sprayed him with mace while another 
man stepped out of an SUV, struck him with a wooden object and drove 
off.<br><br>Police have released a photograph of a 25-year-old member of
 the local street patrol group, the Shmira, who is wanted for 
questioning in what Hynes calls "an unprovoked attack."<br><br>Police 
suspect the attack followed reports that black youths had pelted 
neighborhood homes with rocks. In May, residents say stones were hurled 
at a school bus carrying Jewish children.<br><br>Charles' mother is 
accusing police of having "a double standard," noting that they've made 
no arrest in her son's case while two black teenagers were quickly 
charged with beating and robbing a Jewish 16-year-old riding his bicycle
 several weeks ago.<br><br>"My son's suspect is still at large almost a month after he was brutally assaulted!" said Charles' mother, Wendy Craigg.<br><br>The prosecutor's office said it could not discuss the details of a case under investigation.<br><br>Members of the Shmira, which means "to watch" in Hebrew, are quick to show that they protect both blacks and Jews.<br><br>In
 early May, a Jewish man standing in front of the Lubavitcher 
headquarters was surrounded by four black men who confronted him, 
cutting his hand. The Shmira chased down the four and called police, 
according to Yossi Stern, Shmira's director.<br><br>In another recent 
incident, Stern said, a young black woman leaving the subway was 
confronted by a knife-wielding man who forced her into an apartment 
building, where he tried to remove her clothing. Her screams were heard 
by a resident of the building -- a Shmira member who pursued the 
assailant and called 911.<br><br>But NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said 
that the Shmira "does not cooperate with police like other community 
watch groups who are our eyes and ears." He said the group has not 
supplied police officials with the names of its members, as do other 
such groups in the city.<br><br>Still, the current tensions don't even begin to approach 1991 levels.<br><br>Reported crimes in the precinct that includes Crown Heights have dropped steadily since then -- 77 percent in the past 15 years.<br><br>And
 Green says community residents now have an outlet: Various groups like 
his formed after the riots to encourage common activities, from sports 
to the arts, while bridging differences to avert future clashes.<br><br>"Race
 relations are absolutely better than in the '90s, when we were like two
 ships passing in the night, picking up each other's radar," said Green,
 60, a Crown Heights resident and history professor at the City 
University of New York.</span>
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