Brooklyn Molotov cocktail lawyers bail revoked: Clinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman attorneys forced back to lock up as video emerges of Rahman blaming NYC Mayor over police conduct.
The New York City lawyers accused of hurling a Molotov cocktail into a NYPD van are back in custody after a decision to release them on bail was reversed in court.
On Friday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that lawyers Urooj Rahman, 31, and Clinford Mattis, 32, were back in federal custody after the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the bail decision by the District Court.
‘Instead of using their privileged positions to change society lawfully, they used a Molotov cocktail and sought to incite others to adopt their violent ways,’ prosecutors wrote in a detention memo.
Mattis and Rahman were initially granted permission to stay in their respective homes after posting $250,000 bail in a decision that federal prosecutors fiercely fought against. Prosecutors appealed the decision to allow the two lawyers out on bail with a federal panel deciding on Friday to send Mattis and Rahman back into lock up to wait until a final ruling is reached the nydailynews reports.
Meanwhile, video has emerged showing Rahman, a tenants’ attorney in Bronx Housing Court, blaming Mayor Bill de Blasio for not restraining officers, ‘for their own safety,’ less than one hour before the alleged May 30 incident.
‘I think the mayor should have pulled his police officers back in the way the mayor in Minneapolis did,’
Last week, Rahman and Mattis were arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the police cruiser during volatile clashes over the death of George Floyd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
They were chased by police and upon their arrest, charged with attempting to damage or destroy law-enforcement vehicle by fire or explosives, which carries a minimum of five years in jail and maximum of 20 years.
In a new video from May 30, Rahman claimed de Blasio should have pulled back the city’s law enforcement like Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis did.
‘I think the mayor should have pulled his police officers back in the way the mayor in Minneapolis did,’ Rahman said, while standing near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
‘I think the mayor should have done that, because if he really cared about his police officers, he should have realized that it’s not worth them getting hurt.’
On that night of protests, tensions flared between the NYPD and protesters as more than 200 people were taken into custody.
Protesters launched bottles at officers and one demonstrator was charged with attempted murder for allegedly tossing a homemade firebomb at a vehicle occupied by several officers.
‘Through the means that they use. You got to use the master’s tools.’
About 40 minutes after Rahman’s interview, surveillance cameras filmed her throwing the Molotov cocktail into a police cruiser near the 88th precinct.
A week after the incident, de Blasio revealed that the NYPD Chief will announce suspensions and disciplinary actions against officers who used rough tactics to ensure curfew.
According to Rahman, violence against law enforcement is ‘understandable’ because ‘people are angry because the police are never held accountable.’
‘This has got to stop. And the only way they hear, the only way they hear us is through violence, through the means that they use,’ she said.
‘Through the means that they use. You got to use the master’s tools.’
In the video, Rahman is seen wearing the same face covering, bracelet and shirt that was pictured in a photo shared by Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
Meet Brooklyn lawy er #UroojRahman. The Pakistani tossed a Molotov cocktail inside a parked NYPD cruiser, but her home-made beer bottle bomb failed to explode.
Which begs the question: How does one country produce so many rectums? How does Pakistan do it?https://t.co/8TON7lWELU pic.twitter.com/NFM59nGACu
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) June 2, 2020
‘… this protest is a long time coming.’
‘This s*** won’t ever stop unless we f***** take it all down. And that’s why the anger is being expressed tonight in this way,’ said Rahman. ‘I think this protest is a long time coming.’
Rahman claims that protesters that night were ‘not targeting random people, they’re targeting precinct.’
‘It’s a way to show their pain, their anger.’
Mattis and Rahman were initially released on bail Monday, despite objections from prosecutors.
It was revealed on Monday that Mattis and Rahman also attempted to pass out the incendiary devices to others who were at the protest.
Police say Rahman, a registered attorney in New York, tossed a bottle filled with gasoline through a broken window into the cruiser just before 1am but the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite.
Rahman then jumped into a van that Mattis was driving and together they sped away from the scene.
On Friday, de Blasio vowed that New Yorkers ‘will see a change in this city’ over the role of NYPD officers.
‘You will see change in this city. You will see change in the NYPD. We simply have not gone far enough. The status quo is still broken, it must change,’ the mayor said at a press conference on Friday.
‘This will be the work for the next year and a half of this administration: To make more change, to make it urgently, to make it powerfully, to make it clear,’ he continued.
‘And that work will proceed immediately. And you will see those results and you will judge for yourself, as all New Yorkers do.’
The curfew will end Monday morning at 5am, the same day that New York City is set to enter Phase 1 reopening from pandemic lockdown.
