With every additional video that comes out, Jose Alba’s self-defense case looks even stronger than before, as does the case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg belongs nowhere near the criminal justice system.
The original video of the incident between the 61-year-old Alba and Austin Simon seemed clear enough on its own. Simon went behind the counter of the bodega where Alba was working, shoved him against a wall, and then either pulled Alba up from his seat or grabbed Alba as he was attempting to leave. Alba, in reasonable fear for his life from a man half his age, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Simon five times until Simon released his grip.
Thanks to the New York Post, we have additional videos that help cement Alba’s self-defense claims. The first video shows the unidentified girlfriend of Simon yelling that she is going to bring Simon down and “he’s going to f*** you up.” (The entire incident allegedly started when Alba grabbed a bag of chips from the woman’s daughter after, as the video shows, her card declined repeatedly). “[He] is going to come down here right now and f*** you up,” she repeated.
The video then cuts to when Simon arrives, showing him walking behind the counter where Alba is working and cursing at him repeatedly while Alba tells him repeatedly that the card wasn’t working and that “I don’t want a problem.” The video cuts again to the aftermath, when police arrived after Simon had been stabbed. His girlfriend is still in the store.
This is important because a second video from the New York Post shows the moment when she stabbed Alba. According to the video, she initially tried to wrestle the knife away from Alba (while he was still struggling with Simon). She appears to stab Alba twice, wounding him in the shoulder and hand. She instigated the confrontation, and she attempted to stop Alba from protecting himself, yet she has neither been identified nor arrested and charged for the situation.
According to a police officer that spoke to the New York Post, this is because Bragg’s office decided she was defending her boyfriend. In other words, Alba was thrown in Rikers Island and charged with second-degree murder for defending himself, while the woman who stabbed Alba while he was trying to protect himself gets to claim successfully she was only defending her boyfriend.
Every new video and every new detail only looks worse for Bragg, the criminal justice reformer who is soft on career criminals but tough on 61-year-old convenience store workers protecting themselves from criminals. This entire ordeal has been a disgrace, and every day the charges against Alba haven’t been dropped makes it worse. This falls solely at the feet of Alvin Bragg.
