A 'PASS' IN 'COP ASSAULT'
An accused cop-assaulter whose fellow Black Lives Matter demonstrators forced two dozen officers to retreat from his Hell’s Kitchen building surrendered a day later, on Saturday, with his crowd of angry supporters still in tow — but he was sprung on reduced charges hours later.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. personally ordered Manhattan prosecutors to charge Derrick Ingram, 28, with only misdemeanor assault, a law-enforcement source told The Post.
Ingram, accused of temporarily damaging an officer’s hearing by shouting directly into her ear with a battery-powered bullhorn, had initially been charged with felony assault in the second degree, a charge that recognizes any injury-causing attack on a cop.
Ingram now faces as little as no jail if convicted, as opposed to the potential maximum of seven years for felony assault.
The DA’s Office gave no explanation for the reduced charge, on which Ingram was released with no bail Saturday night.
Instead, a Vance spokesman issued a statement condemning the NYPD.
Cops had arrived en masse at Ingram’s West 45th Street apartment Friday, deploying tactical gear, attack dogs, sniper rifles, a police helicopter and some two dozen vehicles — but without a warrant.
Ingram wouldn’t open his door, and instead livestreamed the massive deployment through his apartment window, attracting a crowd of shouting supporters.
“What did I do?” he lamented online. “I was born black, that’s what I did.”
The six-hour standoff ended when NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea ordered the cops to leave — a move that left police-union brass condemning what they saw as a cowardly capitulation to mob rule.
But Mayor de Blasio supported the order Saturday.
“Commissioner Shea made the right decision to call off the operation,” de Blasio said. “Assaulting an officer is unacceptable and will always lead to consequences, but arrests must be made properly.”
Ironically, cops had tried but failed to identify Ingram in the days after the 5 p.m. June 14 assault at 47th Street and Broadway in Midtown, a law-enforceThree
ment source said.
Only after Ingram shouted in another cop’s ear with a bullhorn at a subsequent protest, in Bay Ridge, were they able to identify him, the source alleged.
After Ingram’s arraignment on the new misdemeanor-assault charge Saturday, the DA issued this statement:
“Our office does not condone the extraordinary tactics employed by police on Friday.
“These actions were disproportionate to the alleged offense that occurred two months ago, and unjustifiably escalated conflict between law enforcement and the communities we serve.”
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch responded with a question: “Why are our leaders sending us out to enforce laws they don’t believe in?” he asked. “And what are we supposed to tell New Yorkers who are watching us retreat while violence overwhelms their streets?”
Detectives’ Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo called it “another slap to the face of every NYPD cop and those they are trying to serve, this time by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.”
Ingram heads a Black Lives Matter protest group that bills itself on its Instagram page as “a collective of nonviolent activists.”
“I’m highly traumatized,” the soft-spoken Ingram said Saturday morning as he addressed supporters at a Bryant Park rally before the group marched to the Midtown North Precinct station house on West 54th Street.
“From everything, from the drones, to the dogs, to the lies that have been told by the NYPD . . . I’m ready to make a change.
“I think we should focus our efforts on getting Commissioner Shea out of office.”