As NY DAs drop charges against rioters, NYPD watchdog concludes 39 officers deserve punishment for response to BLM riots last year



Following news that district attorneys in New York City have dropped the majority of charges against rioters in recent months, an oversight board for the city's police has recommended that 39 officers face disciplinary action for their conduct during last year's Black Lives Matter protests.

What are the details?

In the report released Monday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board concluded that 14 officers — including a captain and a sergeant — should face criminal charges for their behavior, while the remaining 25 should face disciplinary penalties ranging from 1 to 10 days.

Complaints leveled against the officers leading to recommended discipline included force, abuse of authority, offensive language, discourtesy, and untruthful statement.

"So far, the CCRB has substantiated 26 complaints of misconduct containing 48 allegations against 39 officers," the watchdog organization wrote in the report. "The Board has recommended serving Charges in 12 complaints, Command Discipline B in 4 complaints, and Command Discipline A in 10 complaints. The current substantiation rate in fully-investigated protest complaints is 35%."

The CCRB noted that since the start of its investigation last summer, it has received over 750 complaints relating to the behavior of NYPD officers during the Black Lives Matter protests. In the end, those notices resulted in 303 cases containing more than 2,000 allegations that fell within the organization's jurisdiction.

The watchdog added that it is awaiting interviews with officers in 38 of 147 investigations that still remain open and is facing unprecedented challenges identifying officers involved in the complaints due to their failure to follow identification protocols.

What else?

The report comes as New York City district attorneys have dropped hundreds of charges against rioters and looters in recent months, angering businesses in the city that were ravaged as part of the protests.

Additionally, in the cases that haven't been dropped, a bulk of the suspects were reportedly tried on lesser counts — such as trespassing — that do not result in jail time.

In the meantime, the district attorneys are reportedly prioritizing a probe into the Trump Organization on allegations of tax, loan, and insurance fraud.

In response to the news, the NYPD told TheBlaze it plans to "study the CCRB's recommendations through the established processes between our two agencies."

TheBlaze reached out to the New York City Police Benevolent Association, the city's largest police union, for additional comment on the CCRB's recommendations, but has not yet received a reply.

District attorneys drop most looting cases from last year's riots in NYC, leaving business owners 'disgusted'



District attorneys in New York City have dropped looting cases against hundreds of suspects, who were charged during last summer's riots in the wake of George Floyd's death, according to a new report. Allowing the looters to get off scot-free has disgusted some NYC business owners who had their stores ravaged by last year's protests and riots that occurred on a regular basis.

According to NYPD data analyzed by WNBC-TV, there were 118 arrests made in the Bronx in early June last year — during the worst of the looting from riots. Despite many of the suspects being caught on surveillance footage or bragging about committing crimes on social media, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark has reportedly dismissed 73 of those cases, more than 60% of the cases. There have been 19 convictions for mostly lesser counts, like trespassing, which carries no jail time. There are 18 cases that remain open.

Jessica Betancourt owns an eyeglass shop that was looted and destroyed in the Bronx last June.

"Those numbers, to be honest with you, is disgusting," Betancourt said of so few looters being prosecuted. "I 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," she said.

Betancourt is also the vice president of a local merchants association, where other business leaders are upset over the criminals getting away with ransacking businesses.

In Manhattan, where there was nearly nightly unrest, there were reportedly 485 arrests for looting and burglary. But 222 cases have been dropped, 73 had the charges reduced significantly, and 128 cases remain open, according to the data. There were 40 cases involving juveniles that were sent to family court, according to the report.

"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 the district attorneys. "It allowed people who committed crimes to go scot-free."

NYPD Deputy Inspector Andrew Arias noted that painstaking work went into proving each case.

"We had to analyze each case individually and see if, in fact, we could prove the right person had committed the crime," Arias said, adding that follow-up investigations into looting were tedious.

In an internal memo, Vance allegedly said there were over 600 commercial burglary arrests in addition to over 3,500 unindicted felony cases waiting to move forward in the courts, but were put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Before dropping the cases, Vance purportedly instructed his prosecutors to review the criminal histories of the defendants, whether police could really place the suspects at the scenes, and if the suspects caused "any damage to the store."

Vance allegedly 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."

The Manhattan DA also told prosecutors that they should strive to reach the "continued goal to achieve consistency and equitable treatment in these cases."

WNBC reported, "Bronx DA Darcell Clark declined repeated requests for an interview, as did Manhattan DA Cy Vance, whose office has been busy with a team of prosecutors investigating separate allegations of tax fraud surrounding President Trump's businesses – allegations Trump denies."

Wealthy NYC woman, 20, faces 4 years in prison for participating in Antifa-linked protest that caused $100K in damages: 'I don't want to talk about it'



A 20-year-old woman from a wealthy and successful family is now facing four years in prison after allegedly participating in a destructive three-hour rampage that caused an estimated $100,000 in damages during an Antifa-linked protest in New York City.

Clara Kraebber is an undergraduate student at Rice University, which has a tuition of nearly $70,000 and has an acceptance rate of 11%. Her father is a psychiatrist who teaches at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. Her mother is an architect at a prestigious Manhattan firm that has designed spaces for Columbia University and New York University.

The wealthy family owns a $1.8 million 16th-floor apartment in the Upper East Side, according to the New York Post. They also own a home in Litchfield County, Connecticut, that features four fireplaces.

On Friday, Kraebber was participating in an Antifa-linked protest in New York City. That's when Kraebber, along with other rioters dressed in all black, reportedly smashed windows of eight businesses in lower Manhattan, including a Starbucks, several banks, and a Duane Reade pharmacy. Three buildings were also vandalized with graffiti.

EXCLUSIVE: As protestors take to the streets of New York, a small group of troublemakers are seen smashing windows.… https://t.co/reIhCtpaJk
— Adam Harding (@Adam Harding)1599273921.0


Smashed windows and graffiti on New York City banks https://t.co/3KRyCQCXEe
— barely informed with elad 🕵🏻‍♂️ (@barely informed with elad 🕵🏻‍♂️)1599264624.0

Kraebber was one of eight vandals who were arrested by police. The suspects face charges, including rioting and possession of graffiti instruments. One of the eight was also charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to a police spokesperson. Kraebber was charged with first-degree rioting and is facing a maximum of four years in prison.

The suspects ranged between the ages of 19 and 30. Two of the people arrested were from out of state, one from Portland, Oregon, and the other from Iowa.

A law enforcement officer allegedly told the New York Post, "I wonder how her rich parents feel about their daughter. How would they feel if they graffitied their townhouse?"

"This girl should be the poster child for white privilege, growing up on the Upper East Side and another home in Connecticut," the anonymous source said. "This is the height of hypocrisy."

"It's disheartening," Jason Liang, a worker at the damaged Starbucks, told WNBC-TV. "You have the right to do whatever you want, but why do you have to hurt other people's property?"

Friday's protest was organized by the "New Afrikan Black Panther Party," a self-described "revolutionary faction under the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism," and the "Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement," that assists "revolutionaries, social centers, and antifa groups that are already active can help build greater infrastructure of resistance to support those fleeing the state."

The mob, dressed in all black, chanted, "Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground!" The demonstrators also carried banners that read: "Death to America" and "Free All Prisoners." According to police, the vandals spray-painted graffiti that said: "Abolition."

Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement protesters geared up in Black Bloc take over NYC Streets carrying a “Death to A… https://t.co/WREcBMhtYw
— barely informed with elad 🕵🏻‍♂️ (@barely informed with elad 🕵🏻‍♂️)1599260878.0

Kraebber is politically active, and has been participating in street protests since she was 14 years old. She marched in a Manhattan rally for shooting victim Michael Brown in 2014, who was shot by a police Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.

"We don't have much political power right now, being youths, but this is something we can do," she told The New York Times at the time.

Kraebber was a member of the Rice Young Democrats, where she worked on Beto O'Rourke's 2018 Senate campaign that was unsuccessful in unseating Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

"Does Beto make you feel this way too??? THEN GO VOTE!!!" she wrote on Facebook.

The New York Post contacted Kraebber by phone at her second home in Connecticut on Friday night, which she said, "No — not right now — I don't want to talk about it," regarding her arrest.

Wealthy student, 20, is among eight arrested for 'causing $100K worth of damage to NYC businesses during BLM rampag… https://t.co/hC1s6eAkaa
— Daily Mail US (@Daily Mail US)1599451562.0