Outrage over acquittal

THE acquittal of a 17-year-old black youth of murder in the stabbing to death of a Jewish rabbinical student has left this city's Hassidic community outraged, writes Leonard Doyle. Nine police witnesses testified that the youth was found with a bloody knife in his pocket and that the dying victim identified him. The youth later confessed to the stabbing, which occurred during racial unrest touched off when a black child was killed by a convoy of cars following the Lubavitcher Grand Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. The Justice Department yesterday authorised a civil-rights investigation into the case.