OPINION: Could Brooklyn arena host peaceful confrontation not in court but on court?
A protester who is accused of beating up a Brooklyn Jewish communal leader after a basketball game at Barclays Center was once the victim of police violence, according to news reports from last year.
On Thursday, as was widely reported, Shawn Shraeder , 25, described as a Queens native, was arrested in St. Louis, taken back to Brooklyn and charged with attacking Leonard Petlakh, executive director of the Kings Bay YM-YWHA in southeast Brooklyn, after an exhibition game.
The game, between the Brooklyn Nets and Maccabi Tel Aviv, was a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, as the Israeli army is formally known. Normally, such a game would not attract much attention outside the pro-Israel community. However, since Operation Protective Edge, tensions have heightened, and there were several pro-Palestinian groups picketing the game.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with people with a different point of view picketing the game — that’s what America’s all about. But according to Petlakh, several of the protesters blocked him as he was leaving the game, yelling, among other things, that “Your people are murderers.”