New York Post, Tuesday, August 6, 2019
nypost.com
Trump-obsessed “MAGA
bomber” Cesar Sayoc Jr.
dodged a life sentence on
Monday and was instead hit
with 20 years behind bars
for sending explosives to a
dozen critics of the presi-
dent last year.
Manhattan federal court
Judge Jed Rakoff called the
former stripper’s crime a
“horrific act of domestic
terrorism” but declined to
hand down the maximum
penalty sought by federal
prosecutors.
The Florida man pleaded
guilty in March to sending
16 dud explosive devices to
prominent Democrats in-
cluding Joe Biden, Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama,
as well as to CNN’s Colum-
bus Circle headquarters,
days before the midterm
elections last November.
“The fact he made them
unable to explode was a
conscious choice,” Rakoff
said as Sayoc, 57, wept tears
of joy and repeatedly
mouthed “thank you” while
looking up to the heavens.
Sayoc’s lawyers argued
that their client was suffer-
ing from delusions induced
by decades of steroid use
and had been socially iso-
lated, living in a “decrepit”
van for more than a decade.
“He’s not thinking ratio-
nally,” attorney Ian Marcus
Amelkin said, claiming
Sayoc was seduced by Pres-
ident Trump’s rhetoric.
“He’s a man in a van, and
his life is on the line.”
But prosecutors argued
that Sayoc tried to incite
fear in his targets.
On the stand, Sayoc said
he was a changed man and
no longer abused steroids.
“I’ll be apologizing for the
rest of my life,” he said.
Emily Saul, Ebony Bowden20-year
sentence
for MAGA
bomber
CESAR SAYOC
Dodged life in prison.ReutersGov rips meek response to dousings
By BERNADETTE HOGANGov. Cuomo got steamed up
on Monday while discussing
the recent water-bucket attacks
on NYPD cops, saying the offic-
ers’ timid, caught-on-camera
responses to the dousings made
them appear “impotent.”
But while calling the cops’ be-
havior “one of the most disturb-
ing and embarrassing actions I’ve
seen,” he placed the blame on
Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD.
“I look to the training and the
policies of the Police Depart-
ment that would’ve instructed
them to act that way,” Cuomo
said on Albany’s WAMC radio.
“The training has to be, you
don’t turn around and get back
in the car and drive away. You
literally make law enforcement
ineffective and impotent, and
that hurts everyone.
“You’re assaulted, you take
the perpetrator into custody.
That’s what you do.”
Cuomo said the state troopers
under his command would
never tolerate such abuse.
“If that ever happened to the
state police, I would bet you my
bottom dollar that you would
not see state police officers as-saulted and they turn around
and get back in the car,” he said.
The head of the NYPD’s larg-
est union agreed with the criti-
cism but called it misdirected.
“Gov. Cuomo is right: The
NYPD is frozen, but don’t
blame the cops. Instead, blame
the complete lack of leadership
from City Hall,” Police Benevo-
lent Association President Pat-
rick Lynch said.
While Cuomo “apparently
wants the New York State Po-
lice to know that he has their
backs,” Lynch said, city cops
“have nothing even remotelyclose to that kind of support
from our city’s elected leaders.”
Troopers “do not have to deal
with a mayor who demonizes
them for his own political gain, a
City Council that imposes new
burdens and second-guessing at
every turn, or NYPD bosses who
look to protect their own careers
at the expense of the men and
women they lead,” Lynch said.
“It also doesn’t hurt that state
troopers are paid about 30 per-
cent more than NYPD cops.”
Cops were targeted in at least
four water-bucket attacks in Har-
lem, Brooklyn and The Bronxduring last month’s heat wave.
Three men, including one re-
puted gang member, have been
arrested, although two were ac-
cused of soaking a civilian. Ten
more suspects are being sought.
In response to Cuomo’s re-
marks, NYPD spokeswoman
Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell
said, “The NYPD is the best-
trained and most-skilled police
department in the world.”
City Hall didn’t return a re-
quest for comment.
Additional reporting by Tina
Moore and Bruce Golding
[email protected]5 officers hit in bottle barrage
Five police officers were injured fending off
flying glass bottles early Sunday and a ser-
geant was nearly struck by a thrown chunk of
cement later in the day in two more incidents
of civilians assaulting cops, law-enforcement
authorities said on Monday.
James Evans, 28, was arrested for allegedly
chucking bottles at cops — injuring five — as
they tried to break up a party of about 100
people at around 2 a.m. in the Allerton sec-
tion of The Bronx, the sources said.Later Sunday, a sergeant dodged a tossed
chunk of concrete in Central Park.
He was standing guard with other officers
near the Bethesda Fountain at about 4 p.m.
during a free SummerStage concert when the
fist-sized piece of concrete smashed into a
tree three feet from them, police sources said.
Officers did not see who threw the chunk
but filed a report for attempted assault.
There were no arrests in that case as of
Monday evening. Tina Moore, Craig McCarthy—