Terrorist lawyer who helped firebomb NYPD car sentenced to prison

Brooklyn, NY -- A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Colinford Mattis, a corporate lawyer who firebombed an NYPD police car during a Black Lives Matter riot in 2020 was sentenced to only a year in jail. He argued that his elite education--boarding school, Princeton University, a law degree from NYU--should make him be considered a peacekeeper, in spite of his throwing a firebomb at a police car on a public street where anything but peace was taking place.

“You’re not one of the oppressed. You’re one of the privileged,” senior Eastern District of New York Judge Brian M. Cogan told the arrogant person, in spite of the judge expressed admiration for what the 35-year-old had accomplished in his life.

This sentencing marked the climax to a two-and-a-half year legal battle along that he and his co-defendant Urooj Rahman, 33, fought and made them symbols of America's divisions and political upheavals. The case spanned the Trump and Biden administrations and there have been mixed emotions on both sides of the political spectrum.

Insofar as the Heritage Foundation is concerned, they were "terrorists." But far left New York magazine claimed that they could be seen as "civil-rights heroes, even martyrs." And The Daily Mail called them "woke lawyers." In the pages of former newspaper New York Times, they were described by a guest contributor as victims of "deeply ingrained injustices."

Yes, they were the victims, not the businesses that were torched, along with police vehicles, and people who were attacked and in some instances severely beaten. This privileged lawyer and his co-defendant were somehow the victims because their ideology somehow excuses their behavior.

The DOJ in the Trump administration tried to put them away for 45 years at minimum, but under the Biden administration, when he appeared to become president, the DOJ settled for much less. The pair ended up pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson last summer, and both will lose their law licenses, as well they should.

Rahman will be spending 15 months in jail for her part.

But these clowns should not give up hope. MSNBC and CNN both have warm seats that might be waiting for them in a year. In CNN's case, that seat might need a good anti-Toobin alcohol cleaning.

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