Mayor Eric Adams says his “heart goes out” to Jose Alba, the bodega employee unjustly charged with murder for defending himself from a violent attack. Yet he won’t condemn Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for bringing the charges against Alba and having him jailed on $500,000 bail.
What’s the mayor afraid of?
Adams says “we cannot dictate or mandate how [a DA] determines how he’s going to prosecute crimes,” and he won’t “second-guess” Bragg “for his actions.”
Hmm. The mayor had no problems “second-guessing” Staten Island DA Mike McMahon’s decision to hit a grocery-store worker with a 24-hour jail stay for seeming to strike former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Adams called that lockup “unfair” — and explicitly urged the DA to consider prosecuting Giuliani for filing a false police report.
Yes, the mayor’s heart is in the right place on crime. The police initiatives he’s put in place have started to drive down homicides and shootings somewhat — though other crimes continue to tick up. And he rightly blasts his fellow Dems’ disastrous criminal-justice “reforms.”
Yet Bragg — who refuses to do what’s necessary to keep our streets, businesses and subways safe — showed his real agenda with the Alba charge. No bail or jail time for serial criminals, but raise a hand in your own defense and he’ll toss you in the slammer in a heartbeat.
Adams needs to make more noise about it. Even a bipartisan group of city council members is demanding Bragg drop the case; they have no problem “second-guessing” the DA.
Indeed, Bragg is actively turning criminal justice on its head, going easy on perps and now cracking down on victims.
It’s all the more reason for Gov. Kathy Hochul to fire him, and if she won’t, it’s reason enough for voters to fire her this November. (Her rival in the governor’s race, Lee Zeldin, vows to oust Bragg immediately if he won’t do his job.)
And Adams shouldn’t be afraid to say so.
