Two Hasidic neighborhood patrolmen who brutally beat a black, gay fashion student in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York City in 2013 will not serve any jail time for the crime. Instead, 22-year-old Pinchas Braver and 42-year-old Abraham Winkler were handed three years of probation and 150 hours of community service Tuesday, Gothamist reported. They will also have to pay $1,400 in restitution.
Braver and Winkler were just two of the five men involved in the brutal beating of Taj Patterson, now 25, who was only 22 at the time he was attacked. Patterson was walking home from a party in the early morning hours of December 1, 2013 when Braver, Winkler, 31-year-old Aharon Hollender, 24-year-old Mayer Herskovic, and 28-year-old Joseph Fried went after Patterson, according to Gothamist.
Gothamist reported in 2013 that Patterson said he was "[W]alking down some block by myself and then the next thing I know, I’m surrounded by a group of Hasidic Jewish men and they’re attacking me." Patterson added Tuesday: "I was alone. I was an easy target. I’m black. I’m gay, a whole slew of reasons." Patterson remains blind in his left eye from the injuries he sustained that night, which included a broken eye-socket, a torn retina, and blood clotting.
The men who attacked Patterson are believed to be a part of the Shomrim, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that patrols south Williamsburg, according to Gothamist. Braver and Winkler were charged with gang assault but plead down to unlawful imprisonment, which is only a misdemeanor. Neither men were convicted of a hate crime despite Patterson's claims that the men yelled homophobic slurs as they beat him.
