Two immigrant thugs who attacked two New York police officers are back on the streets after Manhattan prosecutors agreed to release them without bail, the New York Post has learned.
Brian Joseph, 24, and Jose Gonzalez, 19, were arrested after they allegedly got into a scuffle with officers on traffic patrol on 8th Street shortly after 9:50 p.m. Sunday, biting one officer and throwing a moped at another, police officials said.
But when they were summoned to court on Monday, Manhattan prosecutors agreed to their release.
In both cases, prosecutors told the judge that the district attorney’s office “would agree to release the defendants on bail,” according to court records.
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“What kind of message is this sending to the public,” one exasperated Manhattan cop told The Post. “They’re basically saying that anyone in a blue uniform is a human piñata.”
Another officer called it “a license to open war on police.”
“Today you bite and kick a police officer, tomorrow you shoot a police officer,” they say. “If you don’t face any punishment, it only incites people to attack police officers.”
Police first confronted the suspect in front of the Row NYC hotel on the 700 block of 8th Avenue. Sources say an officer asked Gonzalez, who was allegedly driving a moped recklessly, to show identification, but Gonzalez did not have one.
As officers tried to arrest Gonzalez, a confrontation ensued and the other two men jumped on the officers, officers and sources said. The three men bit one officer on the arm and wrist and kicked a moped onto another officer, leaving Gonzalez with bruises and a scratched cornea.
Police are still searching for a third suspect, who reportedly kicked an officer and fled, officials said.
The two were charged with assault and battery on a police officer.
Gonzalez and Joseph remain free until they appear in court again in September.
“We can only say that in cases like New York’s, judges have the discretion to make bail decisions based solely on an individualized assessment of the defendant’s flight risk, in accordance with the law, but we do not comment on bail decisions,” Al Baker, a spokesman for the state Office of Administrative Courts, said in a statement when asked about the case.
