Riverdale suspect cut loose

See also: In Riverdale case, NY court proves that woke politics endangers Jews (by Jonathan Tobin)

It was nearly another weekend of vandalized synagogues. Instead, police caught a break early Saturday when a man riding a bicycle against traffic on Delafield Avenue ended up being exactly who they were looking for.

That man was later identified as Jordan Burnette, 29, of Spuyten Duyvil.  The New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force believe he’s responsible for a string of attacks on synagogues that has shaken the Riverdale.

Officers from the 50th Precinct were patrolling Delafield Avenue near West 246th Street around 3 am on May 1 when they spotted Burnette. On further investigation, police found a van with a broken windshield not far from where they picked him up.

Surveillance video from a nearby camera showed a man police believe was Burnette throwing a rock through that windshield — matching the modus operandi of the man who had been throwing rocks at the windows of at least four synagogues along Henry Hudson Parkway. 

Police say Burnette was in the midst of another synagogue rampage when they nabbed him. They believe he stole the bicycle he was riding from the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale on West 250th Street, not far from where they say he doused a pile of Jewish prayer books with hand sanitizer.

He’s facing 42 charges, many carrying additional weight as hate crimes.

A Bronx criminal court judge freed Burnette on “supervised release” pending trial. Earlier on Sunday, a different judge ordered him held on $30,000 cash bail, despite defense attorneys’ claims he couldn’t be held on bail under current state law.

The Conservative synagogue had been targeted in earlier rock-throwing attacks, along with the Riverdale Jewish Center on Independence Avenue, Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale on West 246th Street, and Young Israel of Riverdale on Henry Hudson Parkway East. Additionally, the windows of three cars were smashed on West 239th Street near the Moore Family Riverdale Counseling Center run by the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.

In a joint statement, local electeds including Councilman Eric Dinowitz, his father Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, thanked the NYPD and Jewish leaders “who came together to stand up to this bigotry in our community.”

Barry Dov Katz, spiritual leader of the Conservative synagogue, had a clear message following the vandalism spree.

“We are a strong community, and this was a horrible attack that feels like a violation of our sacred place,” he said.

“These incidents should serve as a reminder that the community must continue to remain vigilant and proactive in securing their institutions,” Joshua Gleis, president of Gleis Security Consulting, a security firm that specializes in protecting synagogues and works with houses of worship around the country, including the Riverdale Jewish Center, told Algemeiner.

“It is also important to remember that all suspicious activity should be reported to law enforcement as well as communal security organizations, as these reports can often prevent more serious escalations before they occur,” he added.

Evan Bernstein, CEO and national director of Community Security Service, told JNS that Jewish organizations and individuals are having a hard time reconciling the idea that Burnette was released without bail after attacking places of worship.

“They feel they did all the right things and the NYPD did everything that they needed to do” to apprehend the suspect, and “now he was let go,” he said. “It is impacting the community in a very negative way. Emotionally, psychologically and from a security perspective, it’s very concerning.”

Noting that several volunteers from his organization confronted the suspect on April 24 outside the Riverdale Jewish Center, Bernstein explained that intellectually, they understand why he was released without bail, “but emotionally, it’s hard to swallow that that person is back on the streets in some capacity.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, also expressed his concern about the attacker’s release.

“New York must not allow hate-mongers to attack houses of worship with impunity,” he said. The NYPD “did its job and arrested the perpetrator of multiple hate crimes, only to see him released by a judge. Criminals, including anti-Semites, will act with increasing impunity putting all in danger unless the laws treat every hate crime seriously,” he added.

Even Mayor Bill deBlasio called for reforming recently-enacted bail reforms.

Allowing judges to set bail in cases of non-violent hate crimes was “an area that we definitely should look at again because hate crimes are such a profound challenge,” the mayor said.

JNS contributed to this report.