In the US, go to ballot boxes, not to bombs, the judge said
Brooklyn, N.Y.: A Brooklyn lawyer who firebombed a police car during a George Floyd protest in 2020 has been sentenced to 15 months in prison on November 18 by a judge who reminded her that she’s not in the West Bank or Belfast.
Pakistani American Urooj Rahman, who pleaded guilty to lighting a gasoline-filled bottle and throwing it at a police car, said she regretted her actions, but her remorse was not enough to avoid jail time and $30,137 in restitution to the NYPD for the damage she caused.
“I’m so incredibly sorry for my reckless and wrong actions,” Rahman said. “I don’t think there are enough words to express my sorrow and regret.” She has also been disbarred.
Judge Brian Cogan said at the sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court that he was disappointed that a trained lawyer had inflicted an “attack on the rule of law,” describing her as having a “Mona Lisa smile” in her post-arrest mugshot.
“You forgot that we’re not in the West Bank, we’re not in Belfast during the Troubles,” Cogan said. “We’re in the United States of America.”
Prosecutors said Rahman tossed a Molotov cocktail into a police car during a May 30, 2020, protest. The car was parked outside Brooklyn’s 88th Precinct stationhouse.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of between 18 and 24 months, but Cogan praised Rahman’s commitment to bettering herself during the two and a half years since her arrest that she has spent in home confinement. The judge ordered her jail time be followed by two years of supervised release.
