Black Star Editorial
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
9 of the white prison guard executioners, who murdered Robert Brooks, were charged with various crimes Thursday, including second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges, in an upstate New York courtroom.
But nearly all of them were given bail and allowed to go home. A few, apparently, were remanded because they couldn’t make bail. One was released on his own recognizance.
This is the kind of racist outcome we routinely get from the criminal “justice” system when law enforcement members murder Black people.
Robert Brooks was murdered on the evening of December 9. The blood-thirsty perps were just sent home—after the family waited months for them to be arrested.
If a group of Black men had beaten a white prison guard to death, in the way Robert Brooks’ life was taken, do you think those Black men would’ve been given any kind of bail?
The release of these murderers, and the soft bail conditions they were given, is another reminder of the systemic racism that underpins this white justice system. Consider for a moment the bail conditions, show below, these animals were given that was published in USA Today.
- Nicholas Anzalone was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. He was offered $100,000 cash bail or $250,000 bond.
- David Kingsley was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. He was offered $100,000 cash bail or $250,000 bail bond.
- Anthony Farina was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. He was offered $100,000 cash bail or $250,000 bail bond.
- Christopher Walrath was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. He was offered $100,000 cash bail or $250,000 bail bond.
- Mathew Galliher was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and second-degree gang assault. He was offered $100,000 cash bail or $250,000 bond.
- Michael Mashaw was charged with second-degree manslaughter. He was offered $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond.
- Michael Fisher was charged with second-degree manslaughter. He was offered $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond
- David Walters was charged with second-degree manslaughter. He was offered $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond
- Nicholas Gentile was charged with tampering with evidence. He was released on his own recognizance.
Would Black murderers of law enforcement receive such leniency? The bail conditions here tell us Black lives don’t matter much to these people, who are supposed to be fair dispensers of justice.
In fact, we should ask this question: shouldn’t these cold-blooded murderers have been denied bail?
On the videos, released by the New York Attorney General Letitia James, we see the savagery and barbarity that was perpetrated upon the body of Robert Brooks. These monsters behaved like modern-day nightriders lynching a Black man casually—inside a government facility. They took pleasure in brutalizing him.
We should also remember this: at least three of the murderers have been implicated in other cases of abusing inmates.
Sgt. Glenn Trombly and CO Anthony Farina were named in the disfigurement assault of inmate William Alvarez in 2020. And C.O. Nicholas Anzalone was one of four Marcy prison guards named in a 2020 federal lawsuit for the beating of Adam Bauer. And, in 2015, Sgt. Trombly was linked to an assault on Equarn White.
Also, the recusal by New York Attorney General Letitia James is troubling, because her office reportedly was representing Officers Farina, Nicholas Anzalone and Robert Kessler and Sgt. Glenn Trombly in four federal lawsuits. Her office reportedly took steps to withdraw from defending them.
Do the powers-that-be think these kinds of slap-on-the-wrist decisions encourage respect for the legal system?
Whenever law enforcement officials break the law, they should face a harsher penalty than regular civilians. Why? Because, as agents of the state, when they break the law, they are also damaging the integrity of the state. Therefore, in the case of such a heinous murder, these prisons guards should be locked away inside jail cells now.
Instead, most of them are inside their homes, while the family of Robert Brooks have but the memory of their loved one. We should all worry about whether this prosecution will be carried out with the necessary zeal.
Because granting bail to these murderers of Robert Brooks was an absolute travesty.
