Fury as New York prosecutors DROP looting charges against HUNDREDS arrested during riots last summer - with Manhattan DA 'too busy building his case against Trump'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...arrested-summer.html

Business owners and residents in New York City are expressing fury at the revelation that prosecutors have dropped looing and rioting charges against hundreds arrested during chaos that swept the city last summer.

After 603 were arrested in Manhattan and the Bronx during the most intense days of looting last June, 295 of the cases have been dropped completely, according to NYPD data reported by WNBC-TV on Friday.

Now Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr and Bronx DA Darcel D. Clark are facing tough questions about why hundreds walked free after the looting rampage caused an estimated tens of millions in damages.

Business owner Jessica Betancourt, whose Bronx eyeglasses shop was destroyed last summer, vented her outrage at the situation.

'Those numbers, to be honest with you, is disgusting,' she told the NBC affiliate. 'They could do it again because they know they won't get the right punishment.'

In Manhattan, the NYPD data shows there were 485 arrests connected to last summer's riots, which saw mobs smashing stores and holding a 'looting dance party' in SoHo.

Of those cases, 222 were later dropped and 73 saw convictions for lesser counts like trespassing, which carries no jail time. Another 40 cases involved juveniles and were sent to family court, and 128 cases remain open.

In the Bronx, 118 arrests were made as mobs smashed shops along the borough's commercial corridors.

Since then, the NYPD says District Attorney Clark's office and the courts have dismissed 73 of those cases, well over half the total.

Eighteen Bronx cases remain open and there have been 19 convictions for mostly lesser counts which carry no jail time.

Vance and Clark declined interview requests from WNBC, but a source close to the DA's office said that prosecutors were too overwhelmed to carry forth the looting cases, with a backlog of cases after the pandemic shut courts.

Vance's office has been busy preparing a criminal case against Donald Trump, said to center on allegations of tax, loan and insurance fraud at the Trump Organization.

The DA insider also said that in some cases, there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute the looters.

NYPD investigators are privately furious that prosecutors are letting the looting cases drop, after cops spent countless hours on a task force helping assemble evidence to make the cases stick.

'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,' former NYPD Chief of Patrol Wilbur Chapman said of prosecutors.

In an October 2020 memo obtained by WNBC, Vance said there were over 600 commercial burglary arrests in addition to over 3,500 unindicted felony cases waiting to move forward in the courts

Vance ordered his prosecutors to review defendants' criminal histories and scrutinize whether police could really prove the suspect caused 'any damage to the store' before dropping cases.

Vance wrote: '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.'

He also stressed the 'continued goal to achieve consistency and equitable treatment in these cases.'

This country is fucked with prosecutors like this. It's only going to get worse.

I hope the corrupt DA drops all lefty rioter charges in NYC. I hope those impacted from last years madness get mad as hell. I hope more and more people with property and financial investment in NYC start to wake up and make trouble and refuse to donate politically. However, given the predilections of that electorate I am not holding my breath.

And NYC is dumping millions into a Tourism revitalization campaign?

Who the hell in their right mind would ever take their family to NYC now?

Imagine the possibilities. And here I thought meth and fentanyl were "hillbilly".

Inside industrial-made meth’s meteoric rise in NYC

A “tidal wave” of dangerous synthetic drugs is flooding New York City, with methamphetamines and fentanyl pouring over the U.S. southern border at alarming rates and quickly finding their way into local neighborhoods, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said...

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
And NYC is dumping millions into a Tourism revitalization campaign?

Who the hell in their right mind would ever take their family to NYC now?

Or Baltimore, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis...

Let the liberal hellholes burn.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
This country is fucked with prosecutors like this. It's only going to get worse.

Been this way for a while. Remember Romney being the presidential candidate against Obama and he hid out the week before the election aiding his loss. This is what the Republicans put forth for a candidate ? It is a Uni-party. Trump clearly showed that. Add in uneducated/brainwashed public and liberal control of all media.

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...ce-riot-squad-quits/

Portland ran a pricy full-page Sunday ad in the New York Times promoting tourism after the Portland police riot squad quit Thursday.



"We like it this way"

^^^ Really.
I've been to Portland. I saw it with my own eyes. It was a week ago. It's a shithole. Stay away.

the crime rate is low because nobody bothers to report crime any more. no point other than to get an insurance form.

but shootings (injuries and deaths) are up for what it's worth. 393 shootings reported in 2019. over 400 so far this year and it's only June.

Graffiti everywhere. Homeless everywhere. busted glass everywhere. tents everywhere. abandoned shopping carts everywhere. Garbage everywhere. boarded up buildings. closed businesses. Crazy people asking for money.

The smell is difficult to describe. It's not from the Farmer's Market.

It's not the same Portland as 10 years ago. Not by a long shot.

It seems there are people who have not actually been there, and those in the city government who want to state that it's just business as usual. It's not.

STAY THE HELL AWAY. If you are driving through on I-5, take the 205 bypass.

I last visited Portland, Oregon in 2014. I'd flown to Portland and rented a car to attend a reunion at the coast, but while in town I visited some friends (relatives of relatives). He lived on the south edge of Portland and I didn't see much of the inner city. He has since died and I have no reason to visit now.

My cruise of the Columbia River will go to Portland, and I'll fly out of the airport there to my tour of Alaska. (I suspect the tour will not visit questionable locations in Portland.)

flashguy

This message has been edited. Last edited by: flashguy,

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Portland ran a pricy full-page Sunday ad in the New York Times promoting tourism after the Portland police riot squad quit Thursday.

That is the stuff of a great satirical novel.

https://www.statesman.com/stor...el-perry/7809946002/

Army sergeant indicted on murder charge in shooting death of Austin protester Garrett Foster

Tony Plohetski
Katie Hall
Austin American-Statesman
updated 6:57PM CT

A Travis County grand jury has indicted an active-duty former Fort Hood Army sergeant on charges of murder, deadly conduct and aggravated assault in the 2020 shooting death of an armed Austin protester.

The slaying of Garrett Foster — an Air Force veteran remembered by family and friends as a man dedicated to exercising his Second Amendment rights, stamping out racial injustice and caring for his fiancée — brought national attention and deepened debates over issues, such as protester safety, self-defense and the right to openly carry guns.

Prosecutors presented over 150 evidence exhibits as well as testimony from 22 witnesses over the course of the three-week grand jury hearing, Travis County District Attorney José Garza said.

"Our heart goes out to all those impacted by this immeasurable loss, in particular Mr. Foster's family and friends," Garza said. "We take our responsibility to present all of the evidence in any given case to a grand jury very seriously."

Sgt. Daniel Perry turned himself into the Travis County Jail at 2:21 p.m. Thursday and was released about 15 minutes later on $300,000 bail. His attorney said Perry was defending himself when he shot Foster and expressed disappointment that his client was charged.

"Sgt. Perry again simply asks that anybody who might want to engage in a hindsight review of this incident picture themselves trapped in a car as a masked stranger raises an AK-47 in their direction and reflect upon what they might have done if faced with the split-second decision he faced," Clint Broden, a Dallas lawyer, said in a statement Thursday.

A fixture in Austin's protests over equality and police brutality last year, Foster was marching in a crowd in downtown Austin on July 25. The 28-year-old was carrying an assault-style rifle, which is legal under Texas open carry laws.

Perry was working as an Uber driver the night of the shooting, and at 9:50 p.m., he honked his horn while on Fourth Street and then turned onto Congress Avenue, into the crowd of marchers, according to police. Foster's fiancée — Whitney Mitchell, a quadruple amputee who uses a wheelchair — was in the crowd near Foster.

Police have said Foster approached Perry's car and Perry drew his own weapon and fired, mortally wounding Foster, before driving away and calling 911.

Police detained Perry but did not arrest him in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

More:Texas law gives no simple answer in Garrett Foster killing at Austin protest

A key issue in the case is whether Foster raised his weapon at Perry. Some witnesses have said that Foster never pointed the rifle, keeping it down, but an attorney for Perry has said that police have interviewed several people who corroborated his client's account that Foster pointed the gun at him.

Foster grew up in Plano and had been living in Austin with Mitchell for about two years at the time of his death. The couple had been attending downtown Austin protests against police violence since at least late May, and Foster often had his rifle with him, according to protesters and Foster's family.

Legal experts previously interviewed by the Statesman had said that criminal charges in the case could be unlikely because of state laws giving people wide leeway to protect themselves in the face of perceived danger.

In his statement, Broden accused Garza of a politically motivated prosecution, and Broden said prosecutors refused to allow him to present evidence favorable to Perry.

Garza called Broden's statements false.

"The facts were presented by career prosecutors in our office to a Travis County grand jury," Garza said. "A grand jury is a collection of our community — our friends and our neighbors who have sworn an oath to be independent from the district attorney's office; to hear all the facts, evidence and law; and to make their best determination."

Garza added that Broden shared a packet of evidence with the DA's office, and prosecutors presented the "overwhelming majority" of that evidence. Prosecutors only withheld evidence that "wouldn't be permitted in a trial," Garza said.

Prosecutors run grand jury proceedings, which are private and do not determine guilt or innocence, but only whether there is sufficient evidence for a trial. Subjects of grand jury investigations have no right to present a defense.

Grand jury’s can be steered by DAs. I’ve seen it when I was a cop. They are not required to present all of the facts. They can basically run with anything and point it towards getting an indictment.

I saw the videos and the driver did nothing wrong. But it’s going to cost him his time, money and probably his army career even if he wins.

Disgusting, the DA is wrong.

Who was it that said a Grand Jury can indict a ham sandwich ?

I sat on a Grand Jury for 2 days back in 2012.

Case after case after case.

The presentation of the evidence is very one-sided.

By the end of the 2nd day it all sounded like gibberish to me.

video at link

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/.../1412315739508207620

Video recorded in San Francisco shows a group of thieves running out of a
@neimanmarcus store in the middle of the day with luxury handbags & other stolen goods.

they jump in waiting cars and take off

"Curbside Pickup Here"

In my tour that includes Portland in a couple of weeks, I wonder if the tour agency will put armed guards on the tour bus. (One thinks of the joke about the tail gunner on a Budweiser truck.)

flashguy

quote:

Video recorded in San Francisco shows a group of thieves running out of a
@neimanmarcus store in the middle of the day with luxury handbags & other stolen goods.

they jump in waiting cars and take off

"Curbside Pickup Here"

LOL. Love watching this stuff.

I don't care how bad shoplifting is or how many piles of human shit are in San Fran.

I don't care if the shot/killed numbers in Chicago look like the casualty list from the Battle of the Bulge.

I don't care if the crime in NYC looks like the opening scene of Predator 2.

I don't care if antifa makes Portland look like Dresden after the Allies visited.

I don't care how many of these communist cities collapse. They chose the path.

While I share the sentiment, once those places are destroyed they are coming to your town and will outvote
you