Judge Rules Black Man Was Unlawfully Arrested In DC

Well, well, well — it has been less than three weeks since President Donald Trump militarized the police in Washington, D.C., as part of a federal takeover after lying about crime being on the rise in the district, and — wouldn’t you know it — Black people in D.C. are already having their civil rights violated.

According to NPR, on Monday, a federal judge dismissed a weapons case against a Black man held in the D.C. jail for a week as a result of what the judge ruled was an unlawful search. In fact, not only did U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui say the search of D.C. resident Torez Riley was unlawful, but he said it was “without a doubt the most illegal search I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened,” Faruqui said in court Monday. “A high school student would know this was an illegal search.”

To be clear, officers said in court papers that they did find two weapons in Riley’s crossbody bag, and that Riley had previously been convicted on a weapons charge. Still, Faruqui determined that the officers had no probable cause to search Riley and that they racially profiled him, singling him out because he was a Black man carrying a heavy bag.

From NPR:

Riley, who entered the courtroom wearing a white skullcap and a bright orange jumpsuit, had been scheduled for a detention hearing. Instead, on Monday morning, the U.S. Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss the case it lodged against him seven days ago.

“The government has determined that dismissal of this matter is in the interests of justice,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.

Judge Faruqui, who spent about a dozen years as a prosecutor in that same office, expressed outrage about the charges.

“We don’t just charge people criminally and then say, ‘Oops, my bad,’” he said. “I’m at a loss how the U.S. Attorney’s Office thought this was an appropriate charge in any court, let alone the federal court.”

Jeanine Pirro, the former TV Judge and Fox News host, who was recently confirmed as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, claimed in a statement to NPR that Judge Faruqui “has a long history of bending over backwards to release dangerous felons in possession of firearms and on frequent occasions he has downplayed the seriousness of felons who possess illegal firearms and the danger they pose to our community.”

“The comments he made today are no different than those he makes in other cases involving dangerous criminals,” she continued.

Pirro’s remarks are interesting considering that, according to a spokesman for the Department of Justice, she herself moved to dismiss the charges against Riley after she was shown police bodycam footage of his arrest.

Meanwhile, Faruqui stated that he had seven cases on his docket on Monday that involved people who had been arrested over the weekend, and that it was the most he had ever seen in all his years on the bench.

So, to recap, since Trump took over policing in D.C. and deployed National Guard troops into the city to police citizens, arrests are on the rise while crime is at its lowest the city has seen in three decades.

So, you know, maybe this is all just more racism and political theater from the Trump administration. What exactly are these people doing besides being authoritarian oppressors and finding solutions to problems they manufactured?

SEE ALSO:

Trump Says He Fired 1st Black Woman Fed Governor, Who Says He Did Not And ‘Has No Authority’ To Do So

Op-Ed: Trump’s Executive Order Making It Illegal To Burn US Flag Defies Supreme Court And Is Anti-Freedom