Baltimore community groups protest racist attack

At noon on Jan. 24, Baltimore activists representing different community organizations came out in freezing weather to protest outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse against an action taken by State’s Attorney Greg Bernstein. Protesters opposed Bernstein’s reducing of all felony charges to misdemeanors against a member of a Zionist vigilante group that brutally attacked an African-American student.

WW photo

On Nov. 19, a group of men from Shomrim, a Zionist vigilante group, targeted the 15-year-old student from Northwestern Senior High School as he was walking home from school. Eliyahu Werdesheim of Shomrim, a veteran of the Israeli Special Forces and CEO of the Baltimore-based security firm, Sayeret Operational Solutions, harassed the teenager.

The youth reported that Werdesheim told him, “You don’t belong in this neighborhood,” and then hit him over the head with a radio. Immediately other Shomrim members joined Werdesheim in the racist attack by kneeing the student in the back, throwing him to the ground and breaking his wrist.

Members of the All Peoples Congress, representatives of the Baltimore chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Baltimore Black Think Tank and community activist Leo Burroughs demanded that the vigilante group be disbanded and members of the group be charged with hate crimes. The activists at the protest announced that they would be demonstrating at Werdesheim’s Feb. 15 hearing.