- NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea says bail reform is to blame for the Big Apple’s unrelenting crime wave
- One suspect, who stabbed an officer six times in 2008, attacked an officer on Sunday and was issued supervised release instead of bail
- Isus Thompson randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos
- Queens Officer Demitrios Raptis, the cop who Thompson attempted to kill in 2008, has called it ‘insane’ that his attacker is back on the streets
- Felony assaults, rape and robberies in New York City are all on the rise in NYC
New York City’s top cop is warning that a steep drop in the inmate population at Rikers Island is fueling an unrelenting crime wave in the Big Apple.
He also slammed bail reform laws after a criminal who attacked a cop on Sunday was released just hours later.
An officer who was nearly killed in 2008 by the same man called his release 'insane.'
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea noted that the number of suspects being released is evident in the decline in inmates at Rikers Island as there are about 5,400 inmates currently, while there were almost 6,100 a month ago, he told the New York Post.
Shea also slammed bail reform laws for permitting more suspects to roam the streets after committing crimes.
He specifically referenced Isus Thompson, 38, who on Sunday randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos.
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronx’s Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind.
Thompson, who was also found in possession of a metal box-cutter at the time of his arrest, was given three separate assault charges, weapon possession, harassment and resisting arrest, court records show.
One of his assault charges was listed as a felony, which grants judges discretion to set bail, but Thompson was instead set free on supervised release, meaning that he is just required to periodically check in with the court.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea says bail reform is to blame for the Big Apple’s unrelenting crime wave. He is above at Memorial Ceremony at One Police Plaza in New York on November 15 |
Shea noted that less and less criminals are being held at Rikers Island |
Isus Thompson, who stabbed an officer six times in 2008, attacked an officer on Sunday and was issued supervised release instead of bail |
Following his release, Shea tweeted, ‘Arrested in ‘08 for the attempted murder of a police officer, the same man was again arrested Sun. for attacking a #Bronx cop from behind. Late last night, this violent criminal was released without bail. Do we have to wait for him to kill someone before this is taken seriously?’
Meanwhile, Queens Officer Demitrios Raptis, 42, the cop who Thompson attempted to kill in 2008, has called it ‘insane’ that his attacker assault a fellow officer and nothing is being done to keep him away from the public.
Thompson pleaded guilty in 2008 to second-degree attempted murder for stabbing Raptis six times in the ride side of the stomach. Most of the blows were absorbed by Raptis’s bulletproof vest, but he also suffered stab wounds and still has a scar.
Raptis approached Thompson at 10.30pm on June 6 of that year when he saw the suspect smoking marijuana in the Ehrenreich-Austin Playground at Austin Street and told him that he couldn’t be there after sunset.
Raptis walked with Thompson to his police cruiser and told him to put his hands on the car, but Thompson pulled out a knife and started stabbing him before running off. He was finally arrested after a three-block chase, according to court records.
Thompson randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos |
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronx’s Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind. |
‘I could have died that night,’ Raptis told the New York Post. ‘I think the guy should be locked up, shouldn’t be let out. He could have killed this officer too. He should be behind bars.'
Raptis added, ‘These guys are violent criminals, and they’re being let out with no bail, nothing. Everybody’s in and out, that’s the problem. Nobody goes to jail anymore. These criminals know, “I’m not going to jail. I’m going to Central Booking. I’m going to get a ticket, I’m going to do it again.” They know there’s no consequences.’
After the stabbing, Thompson was sentenced to five years in prison beginning in 2010 and was released two years later on parole, which expired in 2015, corrections records show. It is not clear whether the prosecutor in Thompson’s most recent offense was aware of his prior conviction.
After Thompson’s attack on Sunday, Officer Lee was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital for evaluation for suffering non-critical injuries, sources told the New York Post.
He told the news outlet that the attack was ‘totally unexpected’ and said, ‘I saw him approach and we didn’t make direct eye contact. He saw me and I saw him. It seemed like he was very determined, his focus was straight ahead.’
Lee continued, ‘He seemed like he was going to walk across the street … I was looking at him from an angle and turned to see my partner’s back. As I turned on an angle, that’s when he came about here,’ Lee noted, gesturing to his neck. ‘Thankfully there were enough officers there to get him into custody.’
Bodycam footage from the arrest shows Thompson refusing to be handcuffed as he scuffles and kicks at the officers trying to apprehend him.
Asked by the New York Post about how he feels about Thompson’s release, Lee said, ‘I’m not sure how I should feel about it. I was just performing my duty as any officer would.’
Harry Zucker, 77, a serial pervert who was caught masturbating in front of children on five separate occasions was released for a fifth time because of the bail reform law |
Zucker's house (at left) is mere feet from PS 199's schoolyard, and he is often seen lounging outside in a lawn chair, leering at unsuspecting students with his penis out |
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told the New York Post in a statement that “This case is more proof that our broken criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul. Our legislators, prosecutors and judges all need to stop pointing fingers and passing the buck, because they’re putting both cops and our communities at risk.’
In September, Shea slammed outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to prematurely release dozens of Rikers Island inmates as part of his administration’s efforts to reduce the amount of detainees there.
Shea said at the time, “My position would be — the people that are in Rikers Island worked awfully hard to get in there. And I’m worried about the people in New York City on the street, so my position would be people that are in there deserve to stay in there.”
This Tuesday, the mayor was on the same page as Shea and told the New York Post that “things that need to be fixed” and Thompson’s case shows that ‘we’ve got to do better’ to keep the city safe.
Referring to bail reform, he said, ‘We’ve got to fix the parts of this bill that aren’t working, we got to preserve the parts that are working. There are some profoundly good reforms, but an episode like this points out this is just not the way to keep people safe. We got to do better.”
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