#ColinfordMattis | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chiefarbitermoon · 2 years ago

Text

Urooj Rahman: Fordham alumni was sentenced to 15 months in connection with a night of protest

A lawyer and Fordham University alumni was sentenced to 15 months in connection with a night of protest for the May 29, 2020 firebombing near a Police Precinct station house in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

It was related to a night of protest that followed the release of a video of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died in Minneapolis after his neck was pinned to the ground by a white police officer which ignited protests in at least 140 cities across the United States. (https://www.yahoo.com/news/during-george-floyd-protests-2-125843097.html)

According to court filings, she and Colinford Mattis, a friend and fellow attorney, drove in a tan minivan to a police precinct in Clinton Hill. After trying to persuade a bystander to throw a bottle that she was holding, Rahman got out of the van herself, walked toward an empty police patrol car that had already been damaged by protesters and threw the Molotov cocktail through its broken window before fleeing.(New York Times, Hurubie Meko and Rebecca Davis O'Brien, January 27, 2023)

At a hearing in 2021, prosecutors read a series of text messages exchanged between Rahman and Mattis, who recently pleaded guilty to similar charges from actions that night: At one point the pair joked about burning down police headquarters and courts over nearly a 24-hour period. “I hope they burn everything down,” Rahman told Mattis in a message hours before protests formed. “Need to burn all the police stations down… probably all the courts too.(https://nypost.com/2022/11/18/molotov-cocktail-tossing-urooj-rahman-gets-15-months-for-torching-nypd-car/)

When Rahman joined protesters that night, she wrote to Mattis: “Throwing bottles and tear gas … lit some fires but were put out … fireworks goin and Molotovs rollin.”

Judge Brian Cogan of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, sentenced Rahman to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release for the same crime. She was the primary caretaker of her aging mother. Cogan called the sentence one of the most difficult he ever had to impose.

“You are a remarkable person who did a terrible thing on one night,” the judge told her.(New York Times, Hurubie Meko and Rebecca Davis O'Brien, January 27, 2023)

Rahman and her attorneys argued Friday she led an exemplary life prior to that night, which brought her from Pakistan to the United States and later to Fordham Law School, where she earned her degree. Rahman traveled to various troubled areas around the globe during law school, including Northern Ireland and South Africa, to study and aid marginalized people.(https://nypost.com/2022/11/18/molotov-cocktail-tossing-urooj-rahman-gets-15-months-for-torching-nypd-car/)

Urooj Rahman, seen in booking photo below, received a B.A. in 2011 from FCLC with a major in Political Science. She continued her education at Fordham Law where she received her Juris Doctor in 2015. (Forever Fordham Alumni Directory-tinyurl.com/ya22yzed)

Video of an interview she did addressing the night of protest in New York City (Courtesy of New York Post): https://nypost.com/2022/11/18/molotov-cocktail-tossing-urooj-rahman-gets-15-months-for-torching-nypd-car/

#Fordhamlawschool #GeorgeFloyd #ColinfordMattis #JudgeBrianCogan #USDistrictCourtBrooklyn #NYTIMES #NYPost #newyorkcity

0 notes