Philly cop car torcher gets 2.5 year prison sentence
The Philadelphia protester who torched two police cars in 2020 – and was then tracked down by investigators through the website Etsy – was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for the attack.
Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal, 35, pleaded guilty in March to downgraded charges of obstructing, impeding and interfering with law enforcement officers for firebombing the two cop cars outside Philadelphia City Hall as protests raged in the city.
At her sentencing hearing Thursday, Blumenthal said she was high on drugs and in the throes of addiction when she torched the cars, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“My substance abuse left me feeling utterly self-righteous and impervious to critique,” Blumenthal told Judge Barclay Surrick, according to the paper.
“I channeled all of my outrage and grief into the police, and I wish I’d not done that and had had the coping skills and self-de-escalation I do today,” she added.
Assistant US Attorney Amanda Reinitz blasted Blumenthal as a criminal, whose actions did nothing to advance racial justice in the US, the Inquirer reported.
“Her actions weren’t noble. Her actions weren’t free speech. This is a person who knows the difference between right and wrong, and she chose to commit crime,” Reinitz said.
Blumenthal will likely be cut loose from custody in a number of months because she’s been held behind bars since her June 2020 arrest.
The firebug was busted by feds who tracked her down after noticing her distinctive T-shirt, which had the phrase “Keep the Immigrants Deport the Racists” written on it.
They linked the shirt to a seller on Etsy and followed online clues from there that led them to Blumenthal.
In a statement after her sentencing, Jacqueline Maguire, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, chided Blumenthal and other protesters for resorting to violence.
“The actions of Lore Elisabeth Blumenthal and others who similarly crossed the line endangered law enforcement and countless bystanders alike, and proved a huge distraction from the message carried by protesters seeking social justice,” Maguire said.
