Back in the U.S., a New York City judge threw out charges Monday against a Black Lives Matter protester, in a case that drew alarm from defense lawyers after the District Attorney’s Office handed the case over to the New York City Police Department’s Legal Bureau for prosecution. This is Cristina Winsor, the activist who was acquitted on charges of disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway.
Cristina Winsor: “I discovered that instead of being prosecuted by the DA, I was going to be prosecuted by the NYPD Legal Bureau. So, that is, to me, a real conflict of interest, because it should be separate: The NYPD should arrest people; they shouldn’t arrest and prosecute people. … My fear is that it would make people more and more afraid to put themselves out there and express themselves in the streets and that we’d be moving closer to what we would call a police state.”