By: Don Driggers
A mall Rockland County village, with a history of anti-Semitic allegations, since it’s 1991 inception, is in the news once more.
This time the Deputy Mayor was busted with fake police badges and illegal firearms
Deputy Mayor of Airmont, Brian Downey has been hit with 120 felony counts of weapons possession and fake badges resulting from an arsenal of weapons discovered during a September raid of his home by federal and Rockland authorities.
Leading up to the September raid September, Homeland Security agents made Rockland prosecutors aware of a package being mailed to Downey’s home containing a firearm silencer, authorities said.
The package had been intercepted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The package’s description stated “motorcycle noise reduction exhaust pipe,” Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported.
The Rockland grand jury returned the following charges: One count of first-degree criminal possession of a weapon, 12 counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, 19 counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, 85 counts of 3rd-degree criminal possession of a weapon and three counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, according to Rockland/Westchester Journal News
The charges carry state and federal prison time.
Airmont is a village in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the state of New Jersey. The village has been known for controversy regarding the Orthodox community.
In April 1991, creation of the village of Airmont was allowed in the town. Airmont had 9,500 people, including around 250 Orthodox Jews and many non-Orthodox Jews
The founders of the town said that they intended for “strong zoning” to preserve the character of the community. William P. Barr, the United States Attorney General, and Otto G. Obermaier, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed a suit against Airmont and the village of Ramapo; Barr and Obermaier said that Airmont created a zoning plan intended to exclude Orthodox Jews from living in the village and “that other individuals acting at the behest of the defendants have engaged in a pattern of harassment against Orthodox Jews in the village, NY Times reported in 1991.
In 2011, Airmont and the federal government reached a settlement and Airmont agreed to amend its zoning code to allow Mischknois Lavier Yakov to build a school with student housing. The agreement included a $10,000 civil penalty against Airmont and marked the second time federal prosecutors had intervened in Airmont zoning affairs since its 1991 incorporation. In 2018 nothing has happened, and the zoning has expired. The congregation complex will most likely never happen, Journal News reported.
On December 2, 2020, The Department of Justice filed another lawsuit, alleging that there was religious discrimination through land use policies that violate previous court rulings and federal law, Economist reported.
