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A struggling immigrant cabbie and married dad of two who was savagely beaten by a group of brutes in Midtown informed The Post on Friday he’s appalled that two suspects had been let go along with a slap on the wrist.
Taxi driver Afzal Butt, 60 — who suffered chest, neck and face accidents within the stunning Manhattan caught-on-camera beat-down — blasted New York’s lenient bail-reform laws as a “horrible system” after a pair of his alleged assailants had been issued a desk-appearance ticket and allowed to stroll free.
“If they’re not going to place them behind bars, it is a horrible system,” fumed the cabbie, who emigrated to the US from Pakistan and has been driving a taxi since 2004. “I’m hopeless and helpless with this technique.”
Butt stated the town goes to hell in a handbasket relating to crime.
“Send the mayor the video and inform him die with the disgrace,” the cabbie stated.
Butt, who has two grownup youngsters and lives along with his spouse in Upper Manhattan, stated he received into an argument with a gaggle of 5 individuals on Sixth Avenue and West thirty fourth Street on July 19.
Butt had been pulling over to wash up meals that an unrelated crew of scooter drivers tossed into his automotive when the group accused him of almost hitting them, he stated.
“They had been strolling by and saying that I used to be going to run over them,” he stated. “I used to be simply attempting to wash my automotive.
“Then this girl and this boy began breaking my aspect window. She broke it. They began assaulting me,” he stated, including that three extra individuals joined in.
“They had been all hitting me and kicking me, in all places on my physique, my face,” Butt stated.
Disturbing video footage exhibits three ladies and two males punching the cabbie and hitting him with a shoe as he falls to the bottom.
Butt is then seen cowering subsequent to his automotive and masking his face as a lady continues to kick him.
“My eye socket was swollen. I used to be dizzy and lightheaded,” the sufferer stated.
“There’s a lot ache in my neck. I nonetheless can’t transfer my neck. My arms, my knees, my hips. My chest felt like I used to be getting strain on my chest. So a lot ache.”
Butt was taken to a hospital, and two suspects — 35-year-old Howard Colley and 51-year-old Natalie Morgan — had been arrested, in line with police. Cops stated Friday they’re nonetheless in search of the three different attackers.
Police charged Colley with misdemeanor assault, and Morgan landed a rap of prison mischief, in line with police sources.
Both had been issued desk-appearance tickets by cops and let go as a result of the costs had been misdemeanors and the suspects had zero or no severe prison historical past, sources stated.
Even if the suspects had been put via the courtroom system, they wouldn’t have gotten bail as a result of almost all misdemeanors are usually not eligible for bail, sources stated. Even with current revisions, the suspects wouldn’t have been given bail as a result of they haven’t any severe prison previous, sources stated.
“If you’re offended, be offended on the prison justice reforms — no prison historical past and a misdemeanor, it’s important to problem [desk appearance tickets],” a police supply stated.
Butt was outraged.
“Everyone is disrespecting yellow-cab drivers,” Butt stated.
“This is a job that there isn’t a day once I’m driving that no one curses at me,” he stated. “The scooter guys … one in all them cease subsequent to me and hit my automotive. … I attempted to keep away from. I pulled slightly bit as much as allow them to. But once more they got here subsequent to me — I rolled down my window to ask them, ‘What occur, why you hitting my automotive?’ They threw all their meals inside my automotive.
“Everything was littered. Gravy on my shirt, in my eyes. It took me nearly three hours to wash the automotive inside,” Butt stated.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Tina Moore
