While the media fawned after the New York City home of actor Robert De Niro was burglarized Monday morning, the suspect’s rap sheet spoke to the widely ignored problem of criminality observed by Fox News host Jesse Watters.
(Video: Fox News)
As it happened, the 79-year-old Oscar winner was asleep in the townhome he rents for roughly $70,000 a month in Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood when a woman identified as 30-year-old Shanice Aviles was said to have broken in. The suspect, a repeat offender, had been observed by officers allegedly moving door-t0-door down the block before successfully entering De Niro’s home where she was apprehended rummaging through Christmas presents and tampering with his iPad while the elderly performer remained asleep, according to police.
Watters, a resident of the same neighborhood, reacted to the reported burglary by humanizing the victim and making clear, “If Robert De Niro isn’t safe, no one’s safe.”
“Who’s next?” he asked during Monday’s edition of “Jesse Watters Primetime” with an edge of sarcasm. “Is Jean-Claude Van Damme gonna get pickpocketed? Where does this end?”
“You would think a place like that would have better security,” the host said, relating the fact that De Niro’s 10-year-old daughter was also inside and, “He slept through the break-in.”
While corporate media covered the high-profile incident, Watters chided the silence on so many other equally or more impactful crimes left ignored, including by the suspect who had been released on bail only two weeks prior for an alleged robbery. What’s more, the host detailed that Aviles had been arrested 16 times for burglary this year and she’s been arrested 26 times overall. Nine of her arrests, according to police, have happened since Nov. 21.
“This clepto was waging a war on Christmas throughout New York City, not only pilfering presents under celebrities’ trees, she was pinching church donations during Sunday mass,” he said.
Before recounting how his producer’s brother had been mugged on the street and, having no money on him, was forced to hand over a sandwich he had just purchased, Watters drove home his main point, “If this wasn’t Raging Bull’s townhouse we wouldn’t have known about Shanice. You don’t hear about all the crimes that are committed against regular people, it’s only when an a-lister gets jacked. Then it’s news.”
As for the actor himself, De Niro was asked by the New York Post how he was feeling as he was seen leaving the townhome Monday and he said, “OK” before adding “Yep, I’m good,” and “Thank you.”
Meanwhile, as Aviles was transported by police she was heard qualifying the allegations stating, “I didn’t murder nobody,” before asserting, “I didn’t go to Robert De Niro’s house!”
On that point, Watters noted she was correct since the actor was renting the townhome.
Aviles has two bench warrants out for her arrest and was reportedly being held on $40,000 bail, and De Niro is expected to press charges. While burglary for the week ending Dec. 18 was down slightly from the year prior, it is among those stats that have gone up overall, showing a nearly 25 percent increase compared to 2021. As Watters noted, much of that has to do with progressive bail reform and high rates of recidivism.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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