RAGE OVER REMARKS

NEW YORK (1010 WINS)  -- Police officials faced fallout on Wednesday from a street disturbance in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, including accusations that their department's highest-ranking uniformed officer flew into a rage and cursed out the crowd.

1010 WINS Audio: Reporter Mona Rivera Gets First Broadcast Interview with Arthur Schick, the man at the center of the controversy.

Assemblymen Dov Hikind said numerous civilian witnesses heard Chief of Department Joseph Esposito yell "F--- the Jews'' and "F--- the community'' while officers struggled to tame an unruly crowd Tuesday night in Borough Park. The politician and other community leaders were demanding an apology.

Esposito "lost it last night,'' said Hikind, an area Democrat. ``He thought he was in the Wild West.''

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, said that, although officials would review the entire episode, ``from what I can see the police department acted appropriately.''

The department released a statement saying Esposito ``acknowledged that in attempting to bring under control a chaotic situation in front of the 66th Precinct stationhouse last night he used inappropriate language in instructing police officers to 'Get these f---ing people out of here.'''

As word of the arrests spread, angry protesters _ many of them teenagers wearing traditional black suits and hats _ flooded the streets and set small fires. Some surrounded the police station and chanted, ``No Justice, no peace,'' before officers in riot gear were dispatched to disperse the crowd.

Hikind blamed the police.

``The behavior of the young people in the street was unfortunate, but it escalated because of the police,'' he said.

Of Esposito, the assemblyman said: ``We don't want his head. We want an apology.''

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly insisted he had ``total confidence'' in the chief.

``Sometimes in a chaotic situation things may be said that people might regret in the future,'' Kelly said. ``But he's an outstanding commander, and I think overall the situation was handled well.''

Hundreds of residents had stormed the streets amid accusations, later denied by police officials, that officers used excessive force in arresting a 75-year-old man after a routine traffic stop. Witnesses said police had shoved the man against a car.

The man, who was pulled over for talking on his cell phone while driving, resisted the officers during the stop and was arrested with two other people who meddled in the incident, police said.

New York is among a group of states that prohibit talking on hand-held cell phones while driving.

Protesters set small fires and blocked streets in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood while Arthur Schick's car sat parked in front of the bakery bearing his family's name.

Dozens of young Orthodox Jews in traditional black suits and hats gathered on street corners in the neighborhood, which sees very little crime. Charred garbage pockmarked the streets.

Police officers herded away onlookers, who yelled back angrily. The crowd had mostly dispersed by late Tuesday night.

Sariel Widawsky, co-owner of Schick's Bakery, said he saw the traffic stop through the front window of his store, which once was owned by Schick's mother. He said he saw police push Schick, whom he described as a friend he's known since 1960.

``They pushed Arthur against the car and physically manhandled him in a way unbefitting such a well-respected and liked member of the community,'' Widawsky said. ``He shouldn't be treated like that.''

He said police ``acted as if they were going to a riot, pulling out batons and spraying Mace and abusing their power.'' He said people at the scene begged the officers to stop.

Yossi Baumann, a bakery shipping manager who was on the sidewalk wrapping a pallet, said the police called for backup after Schick resisted their handcuffs. He said four officers picked Schick up horizontally and hurled him into a van.

Other witnesses and friends said it's possible Schick, a caterer of weddings and bat mitzvahs, didn't hear instructions from the officers because he uses a hearing aid. They said the police, who twisted Schick's arms behind his back, had overreacted.

Some residents said an increase in traffic tickets had raised tensions in the community.

Schick's friends said a lawyer told them he was taken to a police station and spent time in a cell before being released. Schick's wife, reached by telephone at home around midnight, said her husband was asleep and declined to comment further.

The incident happened on one of the busiest shopping days before Passover, the weeklong Jewish commemoration of the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.