On Saturday, two bombs were detonated within 80 miles of each other: a pipe bomb exploded at a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey Saturday morning; later that night a homemade bomb packed into a pressure cooker detonated on 23rd Street in Manhattan, injuring 29 people. Nobody was hurt in New Jersey, and all 29 wounded individuals from the explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan have been released from the hospital. The FBI said the attacks appear connected, and a prime suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was arrested and is in police custody after a shootout in Linden, New Jersey.

What do we Know So far?

In Seaside Park, a charity 5K–intended to raise funds for marines and sailors–was canceled because of a pipe bomb that exploded in the area Saturday morning. The bomb detonated in a garbage can near the starting line, but because the race was delayed, the area was empty when the bomb went off. Only one of three pipe bombs detonated, investigators said.

Later that evening, roughly 80 miles north of Seaside Park, near Manhattan’s westernmost edge, a homemade explosive went off. Blocks away, a second, undetonated device was found. The FBI said the devices appear to reflect advanced bomb-making techniques. On Sunday, a backpack full of five explosives was found at a train station in New Jersey. It is unclear if the backpack is connected to Saturday’s bombings.

The Prime Suspect

Just before noon on Monday, Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested and captured by police in Linden, New Jersey after a shootout with police. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that two officers were shot. Rahami is the prime suspect in the attacks in New Jersey and Manhattan.

A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, Rahami, 28, lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey. As of Monday afternoon, the FBI is combing his house for clues of a motive or any evidence directly linking him to the bombings.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, suspect in NY & NJ bombings, seen being loaded into an ambulance https://t.co/xQKQoLv7XQ https://t.co/MvXSlYgc6T

— CNN (@CNN) September 19, 2016

Rahami’s parents own First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, a restaurant that has drawn ire from some local residents because of its late-night, rowdy crowds. The Rahamis had previously refused to comply with city officials who ordered the restaurant to close at 10 PM.. Eventually, after confrontations with police officers and a lawsuit from Ahmad’s father, the restaurant and the city compromised: First American Fried Chicken remained opened, but had to close at 1 AM.

The family lives above the restaurant, and the FBI is searching their home for clues as of Monday afternoon.

Was this Terrorism?

When news of the explosion in New York City began trickling in on Saturday evening, Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo instantly denied any links to terrorism. The events surrounding the attacks were murky at the time, but it was still unusual for two prominent public figures to take such a definitive stance immediately following an attack.

On Monday morning, Cuomo shifted his stance: “I believe we will be targeting an individual, a person of interest, and it may very well turn out that there was a foreign connection to this incident,” Cuomo said in an interview with CBS. “Do I believe it’s possible you’re going to find one individual or one group behind all of these bombings? I think that’s a possibility.”

A few hours later, Rahami was captured by police, and as they search his house for clues and question him directly, answers regarding his motives or ties to international terrorist groups are sure to surface. De Blasio continued his measured approach: “To understand there were any specific motivations, political motivations, any connection to an organization — that’s what we don’t know,” he said.

November’s presidential hopefuls–Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton–took slightly different tacks in addressing the attacks. Trump released a flurry of tweets, offering his “warmest regards” to the families and victims of the attacks. Clinton released an official statement on her campaign website, appearing more forthcoming than de Blasio, a Clinton supporter, by labeling Saturday’s happenings as “apparent terrorist attacks.” Her statement said: “Americans have faced threats before, and our resilience in the face of them only makes us stronger. I am confident we will once again choose resolve over fear.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Do you live in Manhattan? Do you enjoy littering, drinking on the street, or peeing in public, or even doing all three things at the same time? Well if so, I have some very good news for you: the NYPD will no longer arrest you for such minor infractions. But this isn’t just good news for you drunken, littering, peeing partygoers out there–it’s a sign that the NYPD is starting to move away from the theory of “broken windows policing” that has for so long characterized the city’s policies.

“Broken windows policing” is at its essence, a simple theory. Criminologist George Kelling and social scientist James Wilson first posited the idea in the 1980s, and it essentially suggests that if one window in a building is broken and no one does anything about it, the other windows will soon be broken. So in policing, if there are little crimes, like public drinking and urination and those aren’t handled, bigger crimes will flourish.

But in practice, broken windows policing has led to a lot of arrests for these low-level crimes, particularly for minorities. Small crimes like public drinking end up racking up arrest records particularly for minority men, making it more difficult for them to find jobs. They can also have tragic consequences–Eric Garner was arrested for seemingly minor crime of selling cigarettes, and was killed in the process.

These arrests also carry a high price tag for the city, and backlog the already-crowded criminal justice system. It’s estimated that this change in policy will remove 10,000 cases from the court dockets each year.

This change in policy doesn’t mean that drinking or urinating in public are suddenly legal. But instead of arresting people who are caught violating the law, the NYPD in Manhattan will give the offender a summons, he will show up to court and appear before a judge, and then a judge can decide whether or not to give him a penalty like a fine.

This obviously doesn’t solve all of the problems with policing in New York City. The way in which even this new policy–handing out summons instead of arrests–is applied could still be prone to racial bias. Additionally, these new policies also only apply to Manhattan. As Police Reform Organizing Project Director Robert Gangi points out, there’s still a lot more work to be done:

If in Manhattan that practice stops, that is a good thing, and that is a positive step toward curtailing one of the current abusive NYPD practices. Now, highly problematic is that apparently this change—relatively modest change—will only take place in Manhattan…this will result in a significant discrepancy in practice, where if you’re caught for a second time being in the park after dark in Brooklyn, the police can arrest you.

The new policy will take take affect on March 7, and is hopefully a sign of an overall move away from broken windows policing to come.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Here at Law Street, we’ll be donating a lot of time to the bad guys in the next few days (foreshadowing!).  Today I am going to buck that trend, and extol the virtues of the modern day superheroes: prosecutors.

I’m embarrassed to say that I’m one of the kids who used to watch Law & Order and Perry Mason and think “one day I want to be a lawyer.”  They did all of the quintessential lawyer-like stuff, or so I thought.  I then went to law school and learned that most lawyers never get to do the awesome stuff that I saw on TV.

Cut to summer 2011, and I’m in New York at the first day of my internship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I took the job on a whim.  I had no idea what being a prosecutor entailed, but the AUSAs I worked for gave me a baptism by fire.  This baptism was among the best experiences of my three years in law school.

I worked with two of the smartest people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  One AUSA graduated from law school and worked at a top law firm for four years.  He then decided he wanted to become a prosecutor, so took the (often necessary) first step of clerking for a federal judge.  Immediately after starting the clerkship, he began the arduous task of applying to be a U.S. Attorney.  The timing worked out perfectly, and by the time his clerkship ended he was sworn in as an AUSA.  The second AUSA that I assisted had the highest GPA on record at her law school, clerked for a 4^th Circuit Judge and then Justice Scalia (SCALIA!!!!).  The pressure was definitely high; I knew that if I could impress them, then maybe the whole “legal career” was not just wishful thinking.

On my first day, I met AUSAs and was given three memos due by the end of the week.  This task was daunting considering that first year law students have four months to create their first legal memo. The difference with these memos was that they were being used in real trials of real people who faced real loss of their liberty.  That kind of pressure lit a fire under me that a legal writing grade never could, and it was the best type of game time challenge.

The second day, I was the second chair at a hearing in an illegal reentry case in front of a Southern District of New York judge. Big stuff! It was also my first encounter with a heinous example of legal unprofessionalism; a legal aid attorney was in no mood to be cordial or cooperative, and was not going to let a little thing like the law get in the way of representing her (guilty) client.  What did I learn?  The best way to shut opposing counsel down is not by being rude or snarky; it is stopping every argument they make with correct law, strong analysis, and a smile.

I experienced much in those three months working with the USAO-SDNY, and I maintain that it was the coolest job I had while in law school.

It became evident to me that summer why prosecutors are the most likely candidates for judicial appointments.  They gain real experience in the practice of law, in terms of persuasive writing, oral arguments, and jury trials.  They have insane workloads, and still find time to give each case the attention it deserves.

During my second year of law school, Justice Sonia Sotomayor came to my school for a dialogue with the students.  One of the questions presented to her was what she thought of the Supreme Court’s composition of former prosecutors and how that background affects their rulings.

Part of her answer focused on an inherent desire to stop the bad guys, and how that desire colors their interpretation of the law.  With that statement, she solidified what I always knew: prosecutors are wearing capes today, and are a huge cog in the wheel that protects us from criminals.

I work in homeland security now, and we often have to deal directly with prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement to further our goals of public safety.  The scenarios that I have been privy to range from the mundane to the insane, and the federal and local prosecutors are in the thick of the madness.

So as you consider your career trajectory, or why you’re considering law school, think about the lawyers you see on TV and know that it’s a real option for you.  Also, check out our crime blog, with it’s analysis of FBI statistics and crime data.  When you find yourself being terrified by the danger levels of certain cities, just make sure you locate the District Attorney and U.S. Attorney’s offices and send them a fruit basket or something, because they’ve got your back.

Images: [Wikimedia] [Wikimedia] [Wikimedia]

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Peter Davidson is a recent graduate of law school who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy.

Featured image courtesy of [megadem via Flickr]

Peter Davidson II

Peter Davidson is a recent law school graduate who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy. Contact Peter at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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