adminThe scene was captured on camera: Savannah Craven Antao, a pro-life activist conducting a street interview in Harlem, was struck in the face by a woman who stormed into the exchange and punched her repeatedly, sending her to the hospital. Americans watched in disgust as video showed a peaceful on-camera exchange explode into violence against someone exercising free speech on a public street.
The attacker, identified as Brianna J. Rivers, was arrested and initially charged with second-degree assault — a serious felony that reflected the obvious, on-camera brutality of the attack. Law and order should be straightforward in a case with clear video evidence, and the arrest at the time seemed to promise accountability.
But instead of justice, the victim got silence: Craven Antao required stitches and suffered thousands of dollars in medical bills after the assault, yet she later discovered the criminal case against her assailant had been downgraded and then quietly dismissed. The physical and emotional damage was real; the failure to pursue the case properly has left a wound not just on the victim but on faith in the justice system.
Worse still, the dismissal did not come for lack of evidence but because prosecutors at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office missed filing deadlines and bungled discovery obligations — mistakes the office itself admitted were “unacceptable” and later blamed on an internal handoff. When a prosecutor’s paperwork becomes the difference between guilt and impunity, ordinary New Yorkers understand something has gone very wrong in our courts.
The Thomas More Society has stepped in to pursue civil remedies, after Antao says she first learned the charges had been dropped from posts by the woman who attacked her. That should never happen: victims deserve notice, prosecutors owe transparency, and people who commit violent acts should not be allowed to parade their escape from accountability online.
This is part of a chilling trend where ideological bias and administrative incompetence protect violence against conservatives, Christians, and pro-life citizens while taxpayers and victims pick up the tab. If prosecutors are more interested in political headlines than in enforcing the law equally, then the people must hold them accountable at the ballot box and through the courts.
Hardworking Americans expect our system to defend free speech and punish criminal violence regardless of politics. Savannah Craven Antao’s case is a warning: when the system fails victims, citizens must demand better — support civil recourse, support prosecutors who actually enforce the law, and never accept a double standard that treats some lives and voices as less worthy of protection.
