NYC Drops Charges Against Hundreds of BLM/Antifa Rioters, Looters
“For many of these commercial burglaries, you will be asked to reduce the initial felony charge to a misdemeanor and to dispose of the case … with an eye towards rehabilitation.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is among those questioning the clear discrepancies between the application of law for those who attended President Trump’s January 6th rally and then entered the Capitol building and for those who spent the bulk of last year burning, looting, and murdering their way through Democrat-run cities.
As hundreds of the former are to this day still being held in custody, with at least one beaten and permanently disfigured by jail guards, New York City has dropped charges on hundreds of alleged looters, many of whom were caught on video smashing windows, stealing goods, and setting businesses on fire.
In late May and early June 2020, looters smashed storefronts in the Bronx and Manhattan boroughs of New York City.
Many were caught on tape, some with their faces visible. Others even posted their own videos of their actions those nights on social media. Hundreds were arrested.
But a review of NYPD data by the investigative team at WNBC, the NBC owned station in New York, shows that a large percentage of the cases — particularly in the Bronx — were dismissed, and that many convictions were for counts like trespassing that carry no jail time.
. . . . According to the data, 118 arrests were made in the Bronx during the worst of the looting in early June.
Since then, the NYPD says the Bronx district attorney and the courts have dismissed most of those cases — 73 in all. Eighteen cases remain open and there have been 19 convictions for mostly lesser counts like trespassing, counts which carry no jail time.
Betancourt, who is also vice president of a local merchants ‘association, called the numbers “disgusting.” She said local business leaders are upset few are being held accountable for the destruction they caused.
. . . . The NYPD data shows there were 485 arrests in Manhattan. Of those cases, 222 were later dropped and 73 resulted in convictions for lesser counts like trespassing, which carries no jail time. Another 40 cases involved juveniles and were sent to family court; 128 cases remain open.
The lack of consequences for lawless looters and rioters—many of whom were released the same day of their arrests, free to return to the streets—is an outrage not only to local business owners but to law enforcement experts.
NBC News continues:
Law enforcement expert and former NYPD Chief of Patrol Wilbur Chapman voiced anger at prosecutors for dropping so many looting and burglary cases.
“If they are so overworked that they can’t handle the mission that they’re hired for, then maybe they should find another line of work,” Chapman said.
The NYPD did set up a task force after the riots to examine videos and photos to separate suspected rioters from peaceful protesters. That work shares similarities with what the FBI is doing in making hundreds of arrests after the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
But unlike federal prosecutors who are moving forward with prosecutions of the Capitol Hill rioters, New York City prosecutors are disposing of most burglary-related cases.
. . . . Former Chief Chapman says while the NYPD did some follow-up, the data shows the district attorneys and the courts have not.
“It allowed people who committed crimes to go scot free,” Chapman said.
Bronx DA Darcell Clark declined repeated requests for an interview, as did Manhattan DA Cy Vance.
In an internal memo, Vance says there were over 600 commercial burglary arrests in addition to over 3,500 unindicted felony cases in the pipeline waiting to move forward in the courts. His memo says all those cases were on hold because of the pandemic.
Before dropping a case, Vance told his prosecutors to review defendants’ criminal histories, whether police could really place the suspect at the scene, and whether the individual caused “any damage to the store.”
Vance told his office, “For many of these commercial burglaries, you will be asked to reduce the initial felony charge to a misdemeanor and to dispose of the case … with an eye towards rehabilitation.”
It’s not clear from this statement whether or not there is sufficient evidence on the felony charges—and if so, on how many of the alleged perpetrators, but it sounds like those on the ground believe “people who committed crimes [are being allowed] to go scot free.”
If the people present during “these commercial burglaries,” were indeed guilty of only trespassing, as allegedly were many of those arrested in conjunction with the events at the Capitol, that’s one thing. If, as seems likely the case since who wanders into a store being looted to snap a few selfies?, the perpetrators are indeed guilty of felonies and hundreds of them are having charges dismissed “with an eye towards rehabilitation,” that is another thing entirely and a standard that must be applied across the board.
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Comments
Well, they were investigated. They looked up their voter registration to make sure they were democrats and then let them go.
Democrats or farther Left.
Subotai Bahadur
Voter registrations mean nothing. In NYC almost everyone is registered Democrat, including diehard conservatives. Almost everyone I know is registered Democrat. I resisted for decades, but finally bit the bullet and changed my registration last year, because there was a DINO running for Congress. He didn’t win, but I didn’t change my registration back. So this Tuesday I will have to look at lists full of Democrats and figure out which are the least insane and likely to do the least damage in office, because there aren’t any good choices. But whoever wins the D primary is going to win the general, so being registered D gives me a vote, which I never had before. Of course at the general I’ll vote R, but that will just be virtue signalling since it can have no practical effect.
The primaries are where one has real power. You can vote FOR a candidate in a primary. In the general election, one must vote AGAINST the worst candidate that has been presented by the voters in the primaries.
I receive the Democrat newsletter (email). They are basically blatant lies written at the 3rd grade level for stupid people. Thank you for having the stomach to register as a “D” so you can have at least some impact.
Here it’s the exact opposite. The general is when I can vote for a R candidate. At the primary my only choice is to vote against the worst of the Dems and for the least bad ones.
So then, you don’t believe in the strategy of voting for the biggest cuckoo D, to give the R a chance?
The R has no chance no matter how big a cuckoo the Ds put up.
If you live in NYC voter registration is the least of your problems. You need to focus on staying alive. You can be shot venturing out on the street in broad daylight. So be careful Milhouse.
The Democrats are the pro-crime party. They have their own brownshirts and they mnow the media and corporations and government agencies are basically part of the Democrat Party.
Time for the Horst Wessel Song to once again break into the Top 10.
Take it away, Chuck Schumer,
https://vimeo.com/556882202
One more load of bananas for the Republic.
Same as with Italy during the Duce’s reign Blackshirts didn’t have charges stick when they broke the law (there are perks to being in the militia of the dominant party after that party gains control.
It goes back to what became the Gestapo. As long as they were carrying out the will of the political leadership, everything they did was considered legal and not subject to judicial scrutiny.
NYC sounds like a mess. No wonder people are leaving.
Not exactly the best foot forward for the ‘NYC is back and better than ever’ narrative.
For limited and specific values of “better”.
Subotai Bahadur
NYC is Back! (Way back.)
How many corporate leases sue for renewal will not be renewed after this decision?
These are Merrick Garland’s brownshirts.
For all of you in the “country club” class – especially if you’re Jewish:
Peter,
View this documentary on Stalin, but in particular, go to 45:00: it is believed Stalin was planning genocide of the Jews in Russia, and building concentration camps for them, but the plan died with Stalin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6m6q7I_1zY
Remember; a hero of the American left is Stalin. And the American left has not hid an ounce of it’s animus towards American Jews.
Otherwise, enjoy your cocktails. And be sure to never vote for anyone as tres gauche as Donald Trump, even when “obama III” is the other option.
Here’s one on Mao. Jump to 8:00 and you’ll see how BLM is being used in America exactly how it was by Mao:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxaWmqgmJxs
In the Mao video above, jump to 14:30 and see how Merrick Garland and Lloyd Austin are being used to turn the American police and military guns against us, exactly as Mao did against the Chinese, murdering 100,000,000 million of them.
That isn’t true. Whatever they may think privately, almost nobody on the left openly supports Stalin.
As I would expect, you guys are alright with insurrection against the United States, so long as the insurrectionists are from your own tribe.
The argument above:
If the rioters & looters in New York got away with it, it’s so unfair that we can’t get away with insurrection against America.
Whoops.
The “you guys” here means the site & most commenters, not Milhouse.
Nobody in the Capitol on Jan 6 was in insurrection against the USA. Not even the Antifa infiltrators who were seen there, and that one who was arrested. (The others have not been arrested because they were not identified publicly, so their friends in the FBI weren’t forced to arrest them.) Claiming they were discredits anything else you have to say. At its worst the invasion was a riot; an ordinary common-or-garden variety riot, and a fairly benign one as such things go. Very little damage, nobody killed, almost nobody deliberately injured.
Antifa, on the other hand, openly proclaims that it is an insurrection. It creates “autonomous zones” where the writ of the USA and of the state do not run. You can’t get more insurrection-y than that. And BLM pretty much proclaims the same goals, though not in terms as explicit. But Antifa and BLM have pretty much merged and can now be usefully regarded as the same mob, so the distinction is moot.
Depends on what you mean by “openly”.
I mean exactly what it said. Nobody can know what thoughts they harbor in their hearts-of-hearts, but since he was denounced no good communist can support him, so those who disagree with the party line keep very very shtum about it.
Well, Maoists continued supporting him for a while longer, but by the time the Gang of Four fell that was done with. Now even Maoists won’t admit to having any admiration for him. The closest they’ll come is to say he wasn’t quite as bad as he’s painted.
Most non-communist leftists always claimed to oppose him. A great many sincerely did oppose him, often regarding him as a right-wing reactionary. George Orwell, for instance.
With the word “openly” inserted in there, probably so.
Not YET. (Stay tuned. And keep youselves wary at all times.)
They sure did when Walter Duranty was writing the national narrative.
That was then. They have not supported him since 1956. That’s longer than most of us have been alive.
Vigilantism starts when it is really needed for a sense of justice. The various governments have decided to selectively enforce law only against those who actually love AMerica and love being American and that is not going to go on forever in America. At some point, people are just going to snap – normal people will just decide that they have had enough and that there is nothing left to lose by finally taking matters into their own hands.
Cy Vance is too busy investigating Donald Trump’s business dealings to deal with any other crime in NYC.
The law has always been used by totalitarians to force submission to the ruler’s agenda.. We are behind enemy lines. They expect us to simply surrender.
The rulers want to control the people. The people want to be free and experience genuine justice. One of those sides must blink as they are not compatible. The widespread (not total) success of the “plandemic” has the rulers thinking they will win which is why they are now so open with their corruption. Pointing out “clear discrepancies between the application of law” will hopefully educate some of the people but it will not change the rulers’ behavior. “Outrage” without action is what the rulers want. They want us to feel pain so that we will gladly surrender just to have a little less pain (false promise of course).
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Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
–THOMAS JEFFERSON
lived in NYC for a while back in the ’70’s–a zoo then to be sure but nowhere near as dangerous as it is today–by dropping charges such as these to mere misdemeanors the dems/progs/fascists and their minions have effectively reduced serious criminal activities to nothing more than minor transgressions/jaywalkings–bs–nothing done with a pen/paper/edict/eo,whatever changes the fact that wanton and deliberate destruction of private/public property or the deliberate assault of innocent citizens is wrong and a violation(s)of natural law–what remains, is what our countrymen in NYC(and other prog strongholds) are going to do about it–that is the discussion we should(and should have been for a while)be having–it’s way past time to have begun thinking about it but it is not past time to do something about it
Portland Rioters: Guilty as Hell, free as a bird
Capitol tourists: Innocent as birds, condemned to Hell