Report: NYC district attorneys to dismiss hundreds of looting cases during summer 2020 unrest

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• New York City district attorneys (DA) Cyrus Vance Jr. (Manhattan) and Darcel Clark (Bronx) have dismissed hundreds of looting cases.
• WNBC reported that Vance Jr.’s office was preparing a case concerning former President Donald Trump’s business dealings.
• Local business owners who were victimized cried foul over the DA’s move.

A report showed that New York City district attorneys in Manhattan and the Bronx have dropped looting charges against hundreds of protesters who participated in last year’s demonstrations and unrest following George Floyd’s death.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has not yet prosecuted the cases of over 485 arrested individuals for looting crimes in the borough last June, despite having video evidence and some social media posts from looters who bragged about their deed.

According to WNBC, Vance Jr.’s office had dropped at least 222 looting charges as it prepares a case against former President Donald Trump’s business organization for tax, loan and insurance fraud allegations.

Per NYPD data, there had been 73 convictions for petty crimes like trespassing; 40 juvenile cases which were brought to family court, and other 128 remaining 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. It allowed people who committed crimes to go scot free,”  former NYPD Chief of Patrol Wilbur Chapman told WNBC, referencing the district attorney’s office.

Authorities believed that those crowds had “planned” to destroy business establishments and their properties in Manhattan. In one specific instance, rallyists were seen having a “looting dance party.”

In the Bronx, local stores also suffered damage to properties as authorities made at least 118 arrests in early June last year. Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, though, dismissed over 73 cases related to the incident.

Local business owner Jessica Betancourt, whose eyeglasses shop got looted during the unrest, decried the incident, calling the pile of cases “disgusting.” Being the vice president of their local merchants’ association in the Bronx, she told WNBC that the community was “in total shock that everything is being brushed off to the side.”

“They could do it again because they know they won’t get the right punishment,” Betancourt added.

Speaking with WNBC, internal sources from the district attorney’s offices said that the COVID-19 pandemic had yielded enormous quantities of backlogs.

According to NYPD Deputy Inspector Andrew Arias, they would need to “analyze each case individually and see if, in fact, we could prove the right person had committed the crime.”

New York State Unified Court System spokesperson Lucian Chalfren called the district attorneys as the spearheader for the banishment of the cases.

Chalfren noted that “an application must be made by the district attorney or, as they have done with hundreds of DATs (desk appearance tickets), decline to prosecute them.”

Fox News has already requested comments from Vance Jr. and Clark’s office.

Source: Fox News