Suspects arrested in a list of recent anti-Semitic attacks have been released without bail due to new "bail reform" legislation, the New York Post reported.
The legislation, under which only physical injury requires bail, officially takes effect only on January 1, 2020.
Tiffany Harris, a 30-year-old woman charged with punching and cursing three Jewish women in Crown Heights, was arrested on charges of menacing, harassment, and attempted assault. Though she admits to both slapping and cursing her victims, and the current case is not the first time she has committed assault, she was released after a few hours without prosecutors even requesting bail.
"So I’m releasing her on consent and also because it will be required under the statute in just a few days," the NY Post quoted the judge as saying. Harris was ordered not to have contact with her victims.
Ayana Logan, 42, who attacked a mother walking with her toddler son, was also released without bail.
"You have to beat the hell out of somebody — or murder them — for there to be any consequences," the site quoted Dov Hikind, a former state lawmaker and the founder of Americans Against Anti-Semitism, as saying. "Otherwise, you are set free."
"It's open season in New York — open season on innocent people. On Jews, on Muslims, on gay people. It applies to anybody. But it’s the Jewish people in particular who have been targeted."