The son of wealthy Manhattan parents who pleaded guilty in the college admission scandal says he spent more than a week behind bars at the notorious Rikers Island jail because his father called police on him and then refused to bail him out.
Malcolm Abbott, 22, says his father, Gregory Abbott, called the police after his son allegedly pushed, kick, bit him and slapped him with a ruler at their Fifth Avenue home on May 18.
Malcolm Abbott says that during his arrest, police officers roughed him up and mocked him by quoting from his rap album, Cheese and Crackers.
‘They used excessive force,’ he said.
‘They were quoting my rap lyrics too…they were like “good cracker”.’
He told the New York Post that his father was so angry that he refused to bail him out, leaving him on Rikers Island for eight days.
Malcolm Abbott, 22, the son of wealthy Manhattan parents who pleaded guilty in the college admission scandal, spent eight days in jail for allegedly hitting his father with a ruler
Eventually, a friend of Malcolm Abbott paid the $1,500 bail which sprung him from jail.
As punishment, he will be required to take anger management classes.
Malcolm Abbott denied hitting his father. He would not say what instigated the argument.
But he doesn’t hold a grudge because his experience behind bars could benefit his budding rap career.
‘At the end of the day, they got me famous, so I am really not mad at them,’ Abbott said of his parents.
He is due back in court on June 25.
Abbott, whose rapper name is ‘Billa,’ says that his time at Rikers is inspiring his hip-hop, which he says will be ‘socially conscious music’ about mass incarceration.
‘Rikers is the pinnacle of injustice,’ he said, though he added that he was treated well by the guards ‘since I’m a white person.’
The jail on Rikers Island, the 413-acre island to the north of LaGuardia Airport, is known as one of America’s most troubled correctional facilities.
Last year, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio presented a plan to shut down the jail in a process that is expected to play out over a period of up to 10 years.
But a New
