Last weekend, a 16-year-old boy allegedly attacked and beat up an NYPD cop in the subway. The cop confronted the teen for supposedly skipping out on subway fare.
The boy was charged with second-degree assault, a felony. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office released him on his own recognizance. The prosecutors also recommended the case go to family court.
The DA, backed by George Soros, defended the decision:
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney defended the release of the male teen after his earlier arrest, citing the teen’s age, which was 15 at the time, and lack of criminal history.“Our system must respond to children as children, and intensive community monitoring was the appropriate pre-trial determination for a fifteen-year-old child with no previous arrests,” Emily Tuttle, Deputy Director of Communications and Senior Advisor of the Manhattan DA’s office, said. “Violence against our police officers is unacceptable, and given his age at the time of arrest, we consented to send his second case to Family Court as soon as possible, where he would receive the age-appropriate interventions and supports he needs while being held accountable.”
Get this, though. Cops arrested the boy “for allegedly beating and robbing a stranger near Madison Avenue” only three days before he allegedly beat up the cop.
He was on the street because, guess what, the court released him without bail.
Despite that arrest, the DA’s office still thought it’d be a good idea to let him go without bail.
In April, the cops also arrested him “for possessing a .40 caliber handgun and a crossbow in Brooklyn.”
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office did not know about the arrest since it happened in a different jurisdiction.
When the case is in family court, the Manhattan DA does not have jurisdiction over the case.
New York made massive bail reform laws, including the Raise the Age Statute. That means “16-and 17-year-olds charged with misdemeanors and many nonviolent felonies are automatically prosecuted in family court.”
However, a district attorney can recommend “to keep a case in criminal court if the crime involves significant physical injury, the display of a firearm, a sexual offense or ‘extraordinary circumstances.'”
The release of the 16-year-old boy appalled New York City Mayor Eric Adams. He wants the state government to rewrite the bail reform laws:
As crime rises in the city, Adams has blamed reforms that went into effect two years ago that limited the number of offenses for which judges could remand defendants to jail and raised the age at which authorities could charge people as adults from 16 to 18 years old. He has also suggested that the court system is processing cases too slowly.“As soon as we catch them, the system releases them, and they repeat the action,” Adams said. “When I say we’re the laughingstock of the country, this is what I’m talking about. How do we keep our city safe, when the other parts of the criminal justice system — they have abandoned our public safety apparatus?”Adams suggested that Albany lawmakers should convene to rewrite the bail rules as they did last month to pass new legislation that prohibited where civilians can carry guns, in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state gun control law.“We’re not talking about someone that steals an apple,” Adams said. “We’re talking about someone that has repeatedly used violence in our city.”
Adams noted that the cop didn’t even try to arrest the 16-year-old. The cop asked the boy and his friend to leave the subway.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also asked legislators “to revise the laws ahead of the passing of the state budget earlier this year.” She doesn’t plan on calling for a special session, though.
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