Overview
- About 20 masked activists gathered at Utica Avenue and President Street on Aug. 19, distributing flyers that accused Chabad-Lubavitch of “brutally killing” Gavin Cato and referenced “zionist white supremacists.”
- Police intervened after a Jewish counter-protester was blocked and shoved, and the vigil dispersed without wider clashes or reported serious injuries.
- The NYPD monitored the gathering after advance warnings from community groups that it risked reigniting divisions linked to the 1991 unrest.
- Council Member Crystal Hudson, State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, and Mayor Eric Adams issued public condemnations ahead of the event.
- Crown Heights Bites Back, the organizer, has a record of provocative actions, including praising the shooting of Israeli embassy staffers and circulating accusatory flyers about Hasidic landlords.