A man whose son was the victim of antisemitic violence in 2021 criticized Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler on Monday for ignoring his plea for a fair sentence for the attackers.
Barry Borgen testified at the House Judiciary Committee’s field hearing on Monday along with other victims of violent crime in New York City, and called out Nadler, the top Democrat on the committee, for doing nothing to help his son.
“You’re a Jewish New Yorker,” Borgen said in comments directed to Nadler. “I called your office numerous times. I called Mr. Schumer’s office, another Jewish New Yorker, numerous times.”
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“No one called us back,” Borgen said. “Neither one of you came out with a statement on my son’s incident, OK? You’re a Jewish New Yorker. You have Jewish roots here.”
Borgen said his son was beaten in 2021 in “broad daylight” in Times Square, “all because he was wearing a yarmulke going to a pro-Israel rally.”
He said what should be an “open and shut case” has been delayed at the hands of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Borgen accused Bragg of offering a “sweetheart” deal to one of his son’s attackers who has since been heard saying he would attack his son again.
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“And here Bragg is just schlepping this case along with no solution, offering deal after deal,” Borgen said, adding that a call for tougher punishment from Jewish Democrats from New York like Schumer and Nadler would likely move the case along more quickly.
“If you guys would have come out with a statement from Washington saying we condemn… this beating of Mr. Borgen’s son, we condemn… this act, maybe Mr. Bragg would have taken this more seriously,” Borgen said. He said their silence makes it easier for Bragg to “just do whatever he wants to do.”
“And I call you out on it,” Borgen said of the silence from Schumer and Nadler. “And most of my friends are so disheartened with you and Mr. Schumer, you don’t understand.”
Nadler did not reply to Borgen during the hearing, and Sen. Schumer was not present.
Borgen said he is limiting what he does in Manhattan because crime is on the rise and prosecutors like Bragg are failing to prosecute. He said many of his friends who moved to Florida can protect themselves with guns, but New Yorkers can’t.
“Here in New York we can’t get guns,” he said. “The criminals walk around shooting people, can get guns non-stop, it’s unbelievable. And a gun charge comes to Mr. Bragg, misdemeanor, no problem, walk the streets.”
“I will not set foot in Manhattan,” he said.
