NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Tempers flared for a second night in a row Wednesday in Borough Park, Brooklyn as demonstrators shut down traffic and torched masks to protest new COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the state in hot spot neighborhoods.
On Thursday morning, 13th Avenue was quiet after another night of violent protests where hundreds of demonstrators mobbed the streets, waving Trump flags, setting fire to masks and allegedly pinning a journalist for a Jewish newspaper to a wall, yelling the Yiddish word for "snitch."
Jacob Kornbluh, a national politics reporter for the Jewish Insider, spoke with WCBS 880's Steve Scott on Thursday morning just hours after he said he was attacked.
"The crowd just ganged up on me, yelled at me — 'Hitler,' 'Nazi' — flipped a finger, spat at me, tried to pull me, kick me, somebody hit me in the head and it took a few minutes walking down the street until I was able to escape with the help of the NYPD," Kornbluh told Scott.
The reporter said physically he is okay, but is emotionally distressed and saddened that he was attacked by members of his own community.
He blames Orthodox Jewish community activist Heshy Tischler for turning the crowd against him. Kornbluh said Tischler has accused him of being a "snitch."
"I was standing on the side talking to another reporter while observing the scene, at some point somebody notified Heshy Tischler that I was on scene and he was looking for me. He identified me, he came toward me without a mask, almost pinning me to the shopfront and started talking to me, spitting into my face, saying 'I'm a snitch,' I'm an informer,'" Kornbluh said. "That prompted people in the crowd to run towards me. At that point he was motivating them, directing them to scream at me and to chase me out."
Kornbluh called Tischler an "instigator" who is "looking for trouble."
"He's been sowing distrust in media for weeks," Kornbluh said. "He's just out there to cause trouble."
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident "unacceptable" and "disgusting."
“Here’s a journalist—a journalist who really cares about doing the work of informing people what’s going on—and here’s a mob of people attacking him," the mayor said during his daily briefing Thursday. "It’s just unacceptable. There need to be consequences for that.”
The mayor added that he doesn't know why that hasn't happened yet, but said "it needs to happen."
Mayor de Blasio said Thursday that he expects “a much clearer approach to enforcement."
“I do expect a clearer response going forward. I think there were some issues yesterday, honestly. In terms of both the NYPD’s approach and the approach of the city’s legal team,” the mayor said at his daily briefing. “Understanding the state guidance and getting it right once and for all—that has to be corrected. We need a much clearer approach and I expect that to be corrected today before anything that happens this evening."
Tischler, a City Council hopeful, responded to the allegations on Twitter and denied claims that Kornbluh was attacked.
"But Kornbluh did what Muser Kornbluh does best, tweeted that he was 'Brutally Assaulted' by 'hundreds of community members' which is of course a lie. But Kornbluh does everything for attention. His smearing campaign worked & he got dozens of politicians to condemn our community," Tischler said. He claims there was no violence, just screaming, and that the NYPD escorted Kornbluh out after seeing the commotion.
Kornbluh said he filed charges at the 66th Precinct house and hopes to review video from the scene to try to identify the people who attacked him.
No arrests were made.
"I spoke to Commissioner (Dermot) Shea multiple times yesterday. I spoke to First Deputy Mayor (Dean) Fuleihan this morning. There is something here that needs to be fixed right away and that's why I'm being abundantly clear. It will be fixed today and made public," de Blasio said.
Another man, Berish Getz, is recovering after being knocked unconscious as he tried to record of video Tuesday night's protest over the shutdowns.
Related
The state imposed new restrictions in color-coded cluster zones.
In so-called "red zones," schools and non-essential businesses have been closed, and houses of worship are capped at 25% capacity or a maximum of 10 people.
Mayor BIll de Blasio said police will enforce the shutdown and issue fines.
"We need to stop this outbreak dead in its tracks for all of New York City," de Blasio said Wednesday morning.
The city is promoting an online portal where New Yorkers can type in their address to see if they live in any of these new restricted areas.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo also addressed the attack during a conference call with reporters on Thursday saying the entire situation was “disgusting.”
“I called (Kornbluh), more on a personal level than professionally. I just wanted to say I was sorry for what he went through,” Cuomo said.
The governor added that the reporter is now fearing he may have become infected by coronavirus.
“He had taken a lot of precautions all these months, he’s worried that the people were spitting on him, and he’s worried that he might get infected now,” Cuomo said.
The Democrat says the community is only outraged now because laws were never enforced in the past and now they are experiencing enforcement for the first time.
He said that no matter how angry you may be, there is no reason to attack another person.
“There's no excuse for violence – especially against a reporter. This is a person who was just doing his job. There is no excuse. It was disgusting behavior, frankly, and its unintelligent,” the governor said.
He said that he plans on enforcing the law in those communities until the coronavirus stops spreading.