Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has long operated as if criminals were the real victims in the criminal justice system. As such, he has decided to bring the hammer down on a 61-year-old man who, to all indications, acted in self-defense to protect himself from a violent parolee who quite literally attacked him first.
The situation seems to be pretty cut and dry. After a woman’s credit card was declined while trying to pay for chips at a New York City bodega, she summoned her boyfriend. That man, Austin Simon, was on parole for assaulting a police officer. He went behind the counter, where Jose Alba was working, and shoved Alba into the wall.
Simon, who was 34 years old, towered over Alba and continued to get in his face. Alba either tried to get up and leave or was pulled up from his seat by Simon, but the video clearly shows Simon grabbing Alba by the shirt near the back of his neck as he came to his feet. Alba then used “a kitchen knife that was stashed behind the counter” and stabbed Simon five times.
All of this seems clear from the video. The circumstances suggest that Alba could reasonably fear for his health and safety. A much younger man went behind the counter, where he was not allowed, and physically assaulted him. Then he either pulled Alba up from his seat or refused to allow Alba to leave the situation.
Manhattan bodega worker charged with murder. Woman who didn’t have enough money for her item, went to the car to get her boyfriend, who then came behind the counter to attack the clerk.. Jose Alba, 51, cut the man up, and is being charged with murder. Held on $250,000 bail. #NYC pic.twitter.com/kZ3Ju5yVDq
— YouDontHaveToWatch (@StarsAndBars123) July 6, 2022
Ah, but Bragg sees it differently.
He threw Alba into prison at Rikers Island, the notorious prison about which many liberals have repeatedly raised concerns. Alba, who has no prior criminal history, couldn’t post his $250,000 bail, and Braggs’s office tried to double that number. Prosecutors eventually lowered his bond to $50,000, allowing Alba to return home with an ankle monitor after surrendering his passport. He’s being charged with second-degree murder and is facing up to 25 years in prison, all for defending himself from a violent criminal.
Bragg has previously instructed prosecutors to use a light touch on most criminals. Like many liberal district attorneys, he focuses on keeping criminals out of jail and giving them the lightest sentences possible. He has been compelled to backtrack on some of these policies thanks to public pressure, but now he wants to bring the hammer down on an older bodega employee who was defending himself from a man who was threatening him.
This has become the progressive idea of criminal justice. Repeat criminals are free to roam the streets as long as they don’t get too violent, but anyone who dares defend himself from one of them will face severe justice.
If Bragg thinks this will help him shake his soft-on-crime reputation, he is quite mistaken. He appears to be perpetrating a grave miscarriage of justice. Bragg, like everyone else involved in this disgusting prosecutorial decision, belongs nowhere near any sort of role in the criminal justice system.
