Police are outraged that a protester will not go to jail for beating a plainclothes detective unconscious during last summer’s Republican National Convention.
Jamel Holiday, 20, got the plea bargain, announced yesterday, after he admitted he pulled the cop off his scooter, then punched and kicked him.
The startling assault was caught on videotape that was repeatedly run on television news.
Holiday has claimed he acted only when 10-year NYPD veteran William Sample rammed his police scooter into a crowd of protesters. He also insists he did not know Sample was a cop.
It’s an account his lawyer says is backed by several witness accounts and videotapes. Cops have insisted Sample was assisting fellow officers at the time and did nothing wrong.
“It’s outrageous that a violent felony assault on a police officer resulted in a sentence that does not include any jail time,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
“What makes this even more outrageous is that the incident was caught on camera and resulted in a serious injury to the officer.”
Sample’s union also weighed in yesterday against the Manhattan Supreme Court deal, under which Holiday, a lifelong foster kid who was living in a Harlem group home and has served the last eight months at Rikers Island, will be freed to serve a year of intensive probation supervision.
“This is why the Detectives Endowment Association is seeking reform in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” said association president Michael Palladino.
The association has endorsed incumbent Robert Morgenthau’s rival, former Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, in the upcoming DA’s race.
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram and Murray Weiss