New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said Friday that the judicial system, plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, is responsible for a recent series of violent crimes.
They cited the case of a man accused of attacking four officers during a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge last week who had been released without bond.
But court officials argue that De Blasio and Shea are trying to lay the blame after reassigning plainclothes officers to the department’s crime unit last month amid a nationwide trial of police brutality. and the racial injustice caused by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
One of the injured officers was discharged from the hospital on Saturday after suffering blows to the head in the attack. Colleagues gathered outside the hospital, greeted and applauded when Lt. Richard Mack was carried in a wheelchair, with a patch over his left eye.
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“I want to thank the men and women in blue. Understand what we did there, we would do it again in the blink of an eye. I bled for this city, I would do it again tomorrow, ”Mack told the crowd over a megaphone on Saturday. “The last thing I would like to ask is to remember all the people who died on September 11th. We forget about heroes. They deserve to be remembered. … In this city, many people seem to have forgotten. “
In addition to Mack, Department Chief Terence Monahan and at least one other officer were wounded in hand-to-hand combat on the bridge on Wednesday, the Daily News reported.
A man in a maroon shirt was seen on surveillance video swinging a wooden object, a kind of cane or cane, against a group of officers while making an arrest. Mack reportedly chased down the stick bearer, but was attacked by another protester who started hitting with a handful of heavy rings, using them as bronze knuckles.
The 25-year-old Quaran Campbell, from the Bronx, reportedly knocked a police officer unconscious, fractured Mack’s orbital bones and hit Monahan, Fox 5 NY reported. He was arrested and released without bond despite a request from prosecutors for a $ 75,000 bond.
“The Koran Campbell is captured on video for the nation to witness how it brutally attacks 3 police officers in uniform – 1 who lost consciousness,” Monahan tweeted on Friday. “Judge Robert Rosenthal’s reckless decision to release Mr. Campbell WITHOUT BOND endangers all New Yorkers and the officers who risk everything to protect them.”
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At their joint press conference on Friday, de Blasio and Shea appeared to form a united front amid rising crime.
In response to Wednesday’s attack on officers, Shea said: “I think the world like this sometimes seems to be upside down. There have to be consequences for people who just don’t follow the law. “
“Seeing someone assault him, the department head, is absolutely unacceptable,” de Blasio added, referring to Monahan. Assaulting any police officer is absolutely unacceptable. There have to be consequences, and I say we need to have the judicial system to be operational. “
“In the last year and a half alone, we have around 2,000 boxes of weapons open. Half of them were charged. We need to feel the price of carrying illegal firearms in New York City. We don’t necessarily need more gun arrests. We need trapped people to be fully prosecuted, and we need the open court system to get them off the street as quickly as possible, ”Shea continued.
“The arrest is almost irrelevant. What happens to the prosecution? Shea said. “Right now, in this environment with COVID, I think people should be standing on the highest rung and saying, ‘I demand to have security, I demand to have an operational judicial system; my children’s lives are at stake.’ No we can have a system, public safety is at risk here, where the courts are not fully functioning. ”
In response, Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the Court Administration Office, said the mayor “continues to refuse to take any responsibility for his actions, instead of blaming it.”
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“Mayor de Blasio is a complete jerk, and I will keep that statement until he is no longer mayor of New York City,” Patrick Cullen, president of the New York State Court Officers Association, told WCBS-TV . “The removal of the crime unit has caused a big problem. … handcuffing the NYPD is really causing major unrest. “
