136	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bmeant saving the poor and disadvantaged Jew the agony of btrying to purchase an expensive new home in a different bneighborhood or the heartbreak of watching neighbors bwith sufficient means leave and the neighborhood one knew bfor so many years turn into a nightmare while, because of bfinancial problems, he could not leave.

bThis is why, from the start, we came to fringe neigh- bborhoods—those that were changing but could still be bsaved—and attempted to stabilize them. All the efforts of bgroups to do the same were worthless since the most reason- bable prices and the finest buys could not overcome the great bobstacle—fear. And so, in order to stop the exodus of old bresidents and encourage the flow of new ones, it was crime band violence that had to be stopped. Since the police were beither unwilling or incapable of doing something about the bcrime, we began to organize neighborhood anticrime pa- btrols.

bFor the most part, these involved cars equipped with btwo-way radios in which rode four men armed with bats, bpipes, and—if one had a permit—guns. They would patrol bthe area from early evening until about 2:00 AM. In other bareas, particularly in those neighborhoods which had many bhigh-rise building projects, cars were both unnecessary and buseless. Here, each building would be assigned a number of bmen who patrolled the lobby, rode the elevators, and bchecked various floors.

bFrom the start, we encountered two problems. One was bthe enormous cost involved. Not only was it necessary to bhave a great many cars in most neighborhoods—and not beveryone was willing to volunteer the use of his auto- bmobile—but the cost of the radios was prohibitive. We balso wanted to install special alarms in Jewish institutions bthat would be connected either to the local police precinct or bto the JDL office in the neighborhood. These involved the bkind of money that we simply did not have, and the hope of bgetting it from the neighborhood residents, whom we were bthere to protect, was illusory. Here was the second problem.

bThe residents who lived in fear were unwilling to give beither of their money or of their own time to man the b