and a bloody knife in his pocket. Despite multiple
wounds, Rosenbaum was in stable condition when
he arrived at a local hospital and would have sur-
vived had he been given adequate medical care, but
Rosenbaum bled to death early the next morning.
For three days, various groups of African Ameri-
cans—many of whom were not residents of Crown
Heights—rioted in the neighborhood, looting busi-
nesses, overturning cars, and throwing rocks through
windows. On the first night of the riot, Dinkins and
other civic leaders went to Crown Heights and were
pelted with rocks. The mayor had to hide in the Cato
household to avoid being severely injured. Control
seemed to be handed over to various anti-Semitic
agitators by day and rioters by night. For some, the
physical damage was not as disturbing as marching
crowds that chanted anti-Semitic slogans. Several
accounts claim that an elderly Jewish woman named
Bracha Estrin, a survivor of the Nazi holocaust, was
so frightened and distraught that she committed
suicide.
Impact The Crown Heights riot was politically crip-
pling to the city’s administration and law enforce-
ment. Dinkins considered himself a harmonizer and
envisioned the city as a beautiful mosaic of various
groups living together peacefully. During the riot,
this vision was ruined, and his administration lost
credibility. The riot lasted as long as it did in part be-
cause police tactics were ineffective and were de-
signed to prevent police brutality, not crime. The
strategy was to establish a cordon and prevent the
riot from spreading, hoping that the unrest would
burn itself out. This measure protected neither
property nor people in the area and proved unwork-
able. By the second day of the riot, police were or-
dered to break up groups of rioters.
Police ineptitude also slowed efforts to find jus-
tice for Rosenbaum. Although Rosenbaum allegedly
identified Nelson as his attacker, police officers kept
no notes of the identification. In fact, no officer in-
terviewed Rosenbaum until three hours after the
event, when he was dying. Similarly, officers ne-
glected to record Nelson’s confession; no one had
him sign a document waiving his Miranda rights.
When Nelson’s case came to trial in 1992, he was ac-
quitted despite the mass of incriminating physical
evidence. Not until 1997 was Nelson found guilty of
violating Rosenbaum’s civil rights and sentenced to
substantial time in prison.
Further Reading
Evanier, David. “Invisible Man.”The New Republic
205, no. 16 (October 14, 1991): 21-26. This article
profiles Yankel Rosenbaum.
Gourevitch, Philip. “The Jeffries Affair.”Commentar y
93 (March, 1992): 34-38. Argues that widespread
anti-Semitism simmered within the African Ameri-
can intellectual community long before the riot.
Lardner, James, and Thomas Reppetto.NYPD: A City
and Its Police. New York: Henry Holt, 2000. Briefly
overviews the significance of the riot to the police
who had to quell it.
Shapiro, Edward.Crown Heights: Blacks, Jews, and the
1991 Brooklyn Riot.Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis Uni-
versity Press, 2006. Overviews various interpreta-
tions of the riot.
Michael R. MeyersSee also African Americans; Dinkins, David; Hate
crimes; Jewish Americans; Los Angeles riots. Cruise, Tom
Identification American actor
Born July 3, 1962; Syracuse, New York
Already a major film star at the beginning of the decade,
Cruise became a superstar alternating between commercial
and more demanding film roles.
After ending the 1980’s on a high note by earning
his first Academy Award nomination forBorn on the
Fourth of July(1989), Cruise began the decade with
two critical and commercial flops: the car-racing
dramaDays of Thunder(1990) and the Irish-immi-
grant sagaFar and Away(1992).Days of Thunder
was nonetheless notable for introducing the star to
Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who became
Cruise’s second wife, following his divorce from
Mimi Rogers in 1990. The couple also costarred in
Far and Away.
Cruise then began an impressive string of hits.A
Few Good Men(1992) was one of several Cruise films
questioning those in authority. As a Navy attorney
with a reputation for laziness, Cruise’s character dis-
covers his true character while defending two
Marines accused of murder. InThe Firm(1993),
Cruise played an even more naïve lawyer expected to
sell his soul to succeed with a powerful yet sinister
law firm. The moral choices made by Cruise’s char-The Nineties in America Cruise, Tom 233