OWSer missed court appearance for terroristic threat, because of protesting
Back in November, Nkrumah Tinsley, 29, got arrested for threatening to burn NYC to the ground in the first minute of this youtube:
He says “on the 17th, we’re going to burn New York City to the motherf*#king ground”. Shortly thereafter he goes on to say “No more talking. They’ve got guns, we’ve got bottles. They’ve got bricks, we’ve got rocks…in a few days you’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s.”
Ed Needham, a spokesman for Occupy, said “We wouldn’t have anything to do with this guy. Certainly everything we do is centered around us being a peaceful and nonviolent movment”. But despite this statement, OWS coughed up $7,500 for his bail. He was out a week later, right back to protesting. Needham said there was no way to ban him from the protests.
This seemed a rather odd statement as OWS has in fact banned people from meetings, people who they claimed were disruptive, but happened to be raising questions about OWS finances.
Now Tinsley is in the news again for missing a scheduled court appearance yesterday. A Manhattan judge issued an arrest warrant for him but he showed up after court closed for the day.
According to his lawyer, he didn’t show up on time because he was late coming home on a bus from Chicago where he had been for the NATO protest.
The judge ordered a psych evaluation for the defendant, warned him about being late but didn’t put him back in jail or raise his bail. His attorney apologized to the court on his behalf.
Tinsley is charged with felony terroristic threat, and with a prior OWS felony for allegedly socking a cop.
According to the NY Post, both sides are working out a plea deal with a possible mental health counselling component for the defendant.
Occupier Nkrumah Tinsley leaving court today. Credit Steven Hirsch.
