Peaceful Manhattan Protesters Won’t Be Prosecuted, D.A. Says

(Bloomberg) -- Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said his office won't prosecute those arrested in his borough for unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct associated with the George Floyd protests.

The office policy “is designed to minimize unnecessary interactions with the criminal justice system, reduce racial disparities and collateral consequences in low-level offense prosecutions, and enable the office and court system to preserve resources for the prosecution of serious crimes,” according to a statement Vance's office issued Friday.

Previously, such charges could be dismissed within six months, according to Vance. However, he said his office will continue to charge and prosecute those accused of violence against police officers or looting.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez has also enacted a similar policy of declining to prosecute demonstrators who were arrested in the borough, according to his spokesman Oren Yaniv. The borough has also been the scene of multiple days of protests involving thousands of people, both in downtown Brooklyn, where the state and federal courthouses are located, as well the plaza outside the Barclays arena and a nearby police precinct in Park Slope.

The vast majority of the arrests in Brooklyn have been Desk Appearance Tickets, or a summons issued typically for a misdemeanor that requires someone to appear in court at a later date, according to Yaniv. He said since May 29 more than 100 people were arrested in the borough.

“We said publicly a week ago that we'll carefully review each of them to see if they should proceed,” Yaniv said. “That's been the policy and will continue to be when we get to the Desk Appearance Tickets.”

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark is also declining to prosecute those who were merely demonstrating or violated the city's 8 p.m. curfew and were issued a summons, according to spokeswoman Patrice O'Shaughnessy. Those arrested for looting, assault or other more serious crimes would be prosecuted, if there is evidence to support the charges, she said.

Protests in the borough's Mott Haven section have resulted in about 174 summonses issued and 22 Desk Appearance Tickets with 15 people arrested on charges such as second-degree burglary and property damage, according to O'Shaughnessy.

New York Sued

The Legal Aid Society sued New York City earlier this week over the arrests of almost 500 people in Manhattan who it said had been held at police precincts or at police headquarters in Lower Manhattan for more than 24 hours. Public defenders said the detention violated state law as well as the constitutional rights of those arrested.

New York, like other cities around the country, has seen daily demonstrations over the May 25 death of Floyd as well as other recent racially-charged killings. At least 2,500 people have been arrested on charges ranging from disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, unlawful assembly, assault on a police officer and burglary and looting, according to figures released by the New York Police Department.

During a four-day span from May 31 to Tuesday, about 500 people were charged with looting stores, predominantly located in Manhattan's SoHo section, such as Bloomingdale's and Chanel, as well as Macy's flagship store at Herald Square, according to the Legal Aid Society.

New York State Supreme Court Justice James Burke on Thursday denied Legal Aid's demand that the city release people held for more than a day, ruling that the NYPD was dealing with widespread civil unrest in the midst of a pandemic. “It's a crisis within a crisis,” Burke said, according to the New York Times.

NYPD believes prosecutors will continue to review each arrest and make an assessment on a case-by-case basis, said Sergeant Mary Frances O'Donnell, a spokeswoman for the department.