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By: JNS.org
In a crowded New York State Supreme Court dark-paneled courtroom in Manhattan, Judge Gregory Carro asked the handcuffed Christopher Brown, clad in a beige jumpsuit and white taqiyah skullcap, if he had anything to share before he was sentenced.
“No sir,” the 23-year-old said. “I do not.”
Just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Carro sentenced Brown to 10 years in state prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision.
The August 9, 2001, suicide bombing, one of the deadliest attacks of the Second Intifada, claimed the lives of 16 civilians, including seven children, and injured 130 others. The court’s decision is based on evidence of the PA’s longstanding policy of financially compensating terrorists and their families. This precedent-setting ruling could …
In September, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, announced that his office had reached an agreement with Brown to plead guilty “for possessing a firearm as part of a planned terror attack on the New York Jewish community in 2022.”
Brown was arrested at Penn Station in Manhattan on Nov. 18, 2022. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officers recovered a knife, a swastika armband and a ski mask from Brown’s backpack, the Manhattan district attorney’s office stated on Wednesday.
Bragg stated on Wednesday that Brown’s sentencing was a significant punishment that should counter rising Jew-hatred.
“I know that the Jewish community in Manhattan is continuing to face rising antisemitism and violent threats, and I want everyone to know that we are using every tool possible in coordination with our law enforcement partners to keep them safe,” he stated.
According to court documents, Brown expressed support for Nazi ideology on social media and wanted to emulate Brenton Tarrant, who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
Brown admitted in his September plea agreement that he posted “God wants me to shoot up a synagogue and die” and “gonna ask a priest if I should become a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die,” in November 2022 on social media. He also “used social media to express support for Nazi ideology and accelerationism, a form of racially and ethnically motivated extremism,” Bragg’s office said at the time.
He also “discussed getting tattoos of Nazi insignia, including a swastika on his heart,” the Manhattan district attorney’s office stated at the time. He had also purchased a loaded gun in Pennsylvania for $650, per the district attorney.
Liz Berney, director of research at the Zionist Organization of America, thanked the district attorney’s office, the New York Police Department’s intelligence bureau, the MTA Police, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI.
“We are grateful for the efforts of everyone who prevented Christopher Brown and his co-defendant from perpetrating a disastrous planned attack on a New York City synagogue, and for bringing Christopher Brown to justice today,” she told JNS.
“We hope that Brown’s 10-year sentence will be long enough for him to eradicate his hateful, violent neo-Nazi ideology from his being and to send a message to anyone who would attack or threaten violence against our Jewish community,” she said.
“We urge every law enforcement agency who courageously brought Christopher Brown to justice to deal the same way with the Hamas supporters who are threatening and attacking Jewish students on college campuses,” she added.
(JNS.org)
