The last protester charged in connection with the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations in New York City was sentenced to 50 hours of community service on Monday for his role in a violent clash during which an NYPD lieutenant was seriously hurt, sparking an angry response from the injured officer.
The term was handed down to Shaborn Banks, 31, by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice April Newbauer, who in November found the Bronx man guilty of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in connection with the injuries suffered by Lt. Richard Mack on July 15, 2020, during a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Newbauer acquitted Banks of first-degree assault and a number of other felonies brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that alleged he was primarily responsible for Mack breaking his orbital bone. The grievous injury sent the 26-year NYPD vet into early retirement.
The incident occurred during a wild clash on the bridge between pro- and anti-police protestors at the peak of nationwide demonstrations over the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd at the hands of convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Banks was charged alongside Quran Campbell, another demonstrator among several who clashed with officers from the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group. Campbell was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to assaulting an officer.
Outside the courthouse, Mack lashed out at Newbauer and accused her of being biased.
“For the judge to say that he committed misdemeanor assault on me, that’s a repugnant verdict, and it absolutely shouldn’t have been allowed. It should have been felony assault on me. I’ve suffered enough for this city, and I deserve justice,” Mack said.
“Obviously, this judge is very biased against police officers.”
Bragg’s office had requested a term of 364 days, arguing that although Banks was acquitted of felonies, he was responsible for injecting himself into a chaotic scene and had participated in conduct that left Mack injured.
“Lt. Mack was forced to lose his career and the city lost an experienced lieutenant in the police department,” Assistant District Attorney Austin Minogue said in court.
Banks’s legal team, in court papers ahead of the sentencing, asked Newbauer for leniency. They maintained he only landed a punch after the lieutenant first socked him in the face — hitting Mack’s ear, not his eye — and that footage made clear Campbell was the one who caused the lieutenant’s serious injuries.
PROTESTBK march clash
Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News NYPD officers arrest members of the Black Lives Matter counter-protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge roadway trying to block members of various religious groups along with members of police unions, SBA, PBA and others, from marching on the Brooklyn Bridge to support police officers on July 15, 2020. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
“Mr. Banks, with his 50 hours of community service, is feeling happy that this is over. He’s lived with this for almost six years, being wrongfully accused of fracturing Lt. Mack’s orbital socket, even though it was completely clear from the video that he was not the person who struck that blow,” Banks’s lawyer, Ron Kuby, told the Daily News after the hearing.
“If convicted, he was facing substantial mandatory prison time. He was overcriminalized to begin with, and both the judge’s verdict and sentence made that very clear.”
