Ehud Halevy, Jewish Victim of Caught-on-Tape Police Beating, Files Civil Right Suit

By JTA January 23, 2013

A Brooklyn man who was beaten by New York police officers at a Chabad youth center in Brooklyn has filed a civil rights lawsuit.

Ehud Halevy, 21, filed the lawsuit Jan. 22 in Brooklyn federal court. The assault last October was captured by a security camera.

The video shows Halevy exchanging words with a male police officer and pushing away his hands after the officer had taken out handcuffs. Shortly after, the cop assumes a fighting stance and punches Halevy several times as he and a female officer wrestle Halevy to the couch where he was found sleeping.

During the two-minute incident, the female officer appears to use a truncheon and pepper spray on Halevy. Eight police officers arrive later to handcuff him.

Halevy reportedly had been sleeping on the ALIYA Institute’s couch with permission for about a month before the assault. A volunteer security guard who was not aware of the arrangement had called the police upon discovering the man, who was shirtless and sleeping in the lounge and appeared to be drunk,

Halevy was arrested on assault, resisting arrest and trespassing charges and spent four days in jail before the charges were dropped.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO