Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that she has a memo from New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. that indicates he wants to dismiss charges against rioters while going after cops for alleged misconduct.
“You’ve got a D.A. sending a memo out to his staff basically saying number one, as it relates to the protesters, go easy, dismiss them … we are not worried about that, but we want proactive investigations into possible police misconduct,” Pirro said on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Pirro claimed that “as New York City burns” Vance is ignoring the plight of looted businesses, “many of them minority-owned, many of them — because of the protests — closed forever.” (RELATED: Former NYC Police Commissioner: ‘Lunatic’ Vandals Are ‘Brats Who Weren’t Dealt With By Their Parents’)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council agreed in late June to cut $1 billion from the New York Police Department budget. Sixty percent of New Yorkers do not support defunding the police and 57 percent oppose reducing their budget, according to a poll released in late June.
An “Occupy City Hall” protest group campaigned for the mayor and council to reduce funding.
“The D.A. is basically saying , ‘no, we are going to get rid of these cases of these protesters.’ We don’t want them,” Pirro alleged. “And turning New York City into a bank for those arrested because once they say I’ve been a victim of police brutality or misconduct, you know that they’re going to turn around and sue the city and there’s going to be some kind of liability alleged, and the city is going to end up paying.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, greets a New York Police Department officer after a trip on the New York City Subway A train on March 2, 2016 in New York City. The Mayor rode the subway from City Hall to a news conference in Brooklyn. (Photo by James Keivom-Pool/Getty Images)
“It’s not fair,” Pirro said, adding that New York City has 35,000 police officers, “everyone of them with a gun” who have not been informed about what their liability might be or even “how they can effectuate an arrest.” (RELATED: ‘Defunding … Means Defunding’: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Not Satisfied With Cutting NYPD By $1B)
“They’ve only been told: ‘you can’t do this,'” she continued.
The judge predicted that the situation would continue to deteriorate as “bail reform continues,” saying that jails are developing a revolving door.
“Then we are going to see more defendants who are being released from jail — continuously,” she said.
