From heaven, state police officer still keeping peace
By Oliver Mackson
August 29, 2008
State police Sgt. Warner Hein's legacy of diplomacy under difficult circumstances was on display Wednesday in Kiryas Joel where the potentially combustible anniversary of the death of Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum passed without trouble. The only person who got hurt was a guy who suffered some scrapes and bruises when he tried to stop his car after it slipped out of "park," a good distance from the multitudes who gathered to pay their respects at the grand rebbe's grave.
Hein died suddenly at home on New Year's Eve last year. He was a zone sergeant at the Monroe barracks, which has the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel in its patrol area, and he was the state police "go-to guy" when it came to coordinating the response for big, complicated events like 40,000 people, many of them bitter rivals, crowding into one spot in the village to visit the grand rebbe's grave.
This year's event stood in sharp contrast to past violence sparked by rivalries and challenges to the village's power structure. Back in the early 1990s, dueling factions in KJ rocked and bottled each other. Sometimes, troopers were caught in the crossfire. There were rumblings on Wednesday that there might be trouble, but the rumbles never mutated into hooks and jabs.
The village's public safety director, Moses Witriol, who counted Hein as a friend, smiled Wednesday as he considered the prospect that somewhere, Hein might be keeping tabs on the situation.
The current feud in the Satmar sect is between two brothers and their followers, quarreling over control of big money, blocs of voters and lots of political clout. There was factional ugliness during the village elections this summer. Down the road, there might be more. But as dust swirled and tempers grew thin in the heat on Wednesday, a potentially bad situation was defused, which is, objectively speaking, better than the alternative. From Witriol to state police Capt. Stephen Nevins, the people who were in charge of keeping things cool on Wednesday gave credit to their departed friend for planting peaceful seeds while ensuring that the law would be enforced.
At one point on Wednesday afternoon, a middle-aged Hasidic man leaving the grave stopped as he passed by two state police sergeants.
"Thanks for being around," he told them.
