120	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bof the Crown Heights Community [a lie]. The Jew does not bthink like us, look like us, or give a damn about us except to bexploit us and suck our blood. . . . The Jew kids have day bcamps, summer camps, bus trips, and much more. The Jew bhas taken all of it for himself. He could do it because he is in bcontrol of all the programs all over the city [Jews were bunrepresented on twenty-four of the twenty-six poverty barea boards]. Come out July 25th! Vote the Jew out and bvote Blacks in.”

bWe again patrolled Crown Heights that day; everyone bvoted who cared to and once again a Jewish majority was bdemocratically elected.

bJewish violence and threats of violence. Jewish Panthers. bJewish hoodlums. These were the things that, in the minds bof the Jewish community, made up the Jewish Defense bLeague.

bIt not only made no difference to us, we encouraged the blabels and the reputation and were encouraged by them. bWhat the Jew failed to understand—both the one hostile to bJDL and the one who wanted to help us by getting us to bchange our image—was that we wanted that image, to help bthe Jews. If the Jew thought we were hoodlums and vicious, bso did the non-Jew, and—more to the point—so did the banti-Semite. No bully, no hoodlum, no anti-Semite relished btangling with other hoodlums; if he thought JDL was crazy band vicious and knew that JDL was in the neighborhood, bthen every Jew was safer for it. And while it was natural to be bfrustrated by Jewish attacks on us and normal to want to be baccepted, one of our tenets always was: if it is bad for JDL bbut good for Jews, Jews take precedence. And so for the bsake of Jews we encouraged the myth of Jewish Panthers band Weatherman and endured all the other nonsense from bthe little Jews and organizations with neither mind nor bspine. For too long Jews had had the reputation of being b“nice” people. In general, people who are not nice enjoy b“dealing” with those who are. They are easier to beat, to brape, to murder, to frighten. So many times it is the reputa- btion that brings on the attack and the attack that breeds fear, bleading to a strengthening of the reputation. We wanted to b