We donât usually find ourselves on the same side of an issue as Mayor Bill de Blasio, but he was spot on when he praised a judge who tried to impose bail on an accused serial synagogue vandal. The accused, Jordan Burnette, would likely not have made bail and would have been locked up pending trial.
The problem, though, is that under the new New York bail reform law, enacted in 2018, cash bail cannot be imposed on perpetrators for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. (Burnette is accused of smashing windows and glass doors at four synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx during an 11-day crime spree.)
Police stand guard at Ohel Menachem Riverdale Jewish Youth Library Lubavitch, where glass windows were smashed. Photo by Lev Radin/Sipa USA
Jewish community leaders in New York and nationally were outraged on Monday after learning that the man arrested for a string of rock-throwing attacks on synagogues in the Riverdale neighborhood of New York was released by a Bronx judge just hours after another judge had ruled that he be held on bail.
Jordan Burnette, 29, was arrested Saturday on 42 charges in connection with the spree of attacks, in which over several days he smashed doors and windows at the Riverdale Jewish Center (RJC), Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale, Young Israel of Riverdale and Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale (CSAIR).
The man that vandalized four different synagogues in nine separate attacks that ranged from destroying windows to dousing holy books in hand sanitizer was jailed on Sunday following a contentious arraignment that almost let him free.