Explosive Subway chaos broke out and was was caught on camera on Monday, April 15, as NY police were arresting a Muslim teen for threatening and abusing a Jewish rider. The main theme in the teen’s taunting was, reportedly, the line: “They should have killed all of you.”
When two police officers arrived to arrest Stephan Stowe, 17, in a Brooklyn subway station, they had some trouble cuffing him and the platform quickly filled up with an angry mob, mostly African American, who were screaming at the policemen and filming the lengthy arrest on their cellphones.
Police then wrestled to the ground 22-year-old Sheniqua Joseph, after she threw herself into the proceedings and kicked an officer in the stomach, and charged her with disorderly conduct. Stowe is charged on eight counts, including aggravated harassment as a hate crime.
According to the New York Daily News, the incident began around 3 PM, when Stowe and a group of friends approached a rider wearing a yarmulke on the 3 train in Brooklyn.
Court documents state that Stowe said “A Salamu Alaikum,” an Islamic phrase that means Shalom Aleichem, or Peace be with you, to the Jewish man.
But when he received no reply, the young man said “You think you’re better than me? We are cousins.”
The Jewish rider reportedly disagreed regarding the cousins thing, and told Stowe to leave him alone. The teenager then started in with the slurs.
Police say the Jewish rider took out his cellphone and snapped a shot of Stowe, who promptly grabbed the phone and deleted the image.
Stowe then said “I’m going to kill you right now,” and added: “They should have killed all of you.”
That may have been the fastest switch from Peace upon you to Auschwitz in the annals of Subway mayhem.
The Jewish man got his phone back and alerted the train conductor, who called police, and the two cops were already waiting to arrest Stowe at the Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum station.
That’s when a whole lot more trouble ensued, as police tried their academy-trained best to cuff Stowe inside the empty subway car, in front of a growing, progressively angry mob.
The policemen radioed for back-up, since Stowe continued to resist arrest, and the group of passengers continued to yell and shoot the whole thing on their phones.
For future reference, the proper response to a menacing black teenager who says “A Salam Aleikum” to you on a crowded subway car is: “Aleikum Salam.”