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A protester convicted of assaulting an NYPD lieutenant on the Brooklyn Bridge during an ugly 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration was sentenced to community service on Monday — a slap-on-the-wrist judgment that his victim blasted as an injustice.
Shaborn Banks won’t see any prison time for his part in the attack on Lt. Richard Mack as the Big Apple descended into chaos on July 15, 2020, following the murder of Minneapolis black man George Floyd, a judge ruled over the objections of Manhattan prosecutors.
The light punishment comes after he was found not guilty by Judge April Newbauer of more serious felony charges and a misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon count earlier this year.
Instead, he was found guilty of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
Mack, who suffered injuries during the assault that ended his 26-year career, ripped the judge’s decision as “repugnant.”
“Even if this guy caused minor injuries, as the judge claimed … There is no such thing as misdemeanor assault on a police officer. There is only felony assault on a police officer,” Mack seethed outside the courthouse on Monday.
“For the judge to say that he committed misdemeanor assault on me, that is a repugnant verdict. It absolutely shouldn’t have been allowed. It should have been felony assault on me.”
The former cop said that 50 hours of community service wasn’t justice and will make “absolutely no difference whatsoever.”
Banks’ defense claimed his client only struck Mack after the cop hit him first. Two other defendants involved in the assault have faced harsher sentences.
Chanice Reyes got six months in jail in 2024, and Quran Campbell received a two-year prison term in 2023.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Austin Minogue argued in court that Banks’ violent conduct “contributed to the unceremonial ending” of Mack’s career as he called on the defendant to serve about a year in prison – the maximum sentence for this charge.
“The defendant injected himself into a chaotic state, participated in conduct that left Lieutenant Mack injured. The consequence of that day brought Lieutenant Mack’s more than two decades, 26 years long career with the NYPD to a violent and graphic halt,” he said.
But Banks’ lawyer, Ron Kuby, claimed his client only struck Mack when the police officer first punched him and said another defendant caused the fracture to Mack’s orbital socket.
Mack said in court he was the victim of a “riotous, criminal group who conspired to commit violence against police officers.”
But Newbauer argued that handing down 50 hours of community service with a group of public servants was a fair resolution to the case.
She said prosecutors didn’t prove during the trial that Banks’ actions caused serious physical injury to Mack.
“I appreciate the tragic outcome for a long-serving lieutenant officer who now stands disabled because of the actions of certain individuals, and did not dismiss that lightly,” she claimed.
But Mack brushed aside the judge’s remarks.
“I suffered enough for this city, and I deserve justice,” he said outside court.
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