Commentary
The case of Jose Alba, the 61-year-old Harlem bodega clerk charged with murder for defending himself against a 35-year-old convicted felon who had him cornered behind his counter, may be the case that finally topples the urban reign of the “woke prosecutor.”
Everything about the arrest and prosecution of Alba on second-degree murder charges is shocking, starting with the career and ideology of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who won his office in November 2021 on a platform of what progressives like to call “criminal justice reform.”
That meant declining to prosecute nearly all misdemeanors: shoplifting, disorderly conduct, drug possession, prostitution, and turnstile-jumping in the New York subways. It meant declining to seek prison sentences for nearly all felonies, with a handful of exceptions such as homicide and some sex crimes. It meant charging armed robbers with mere petty theft (Bragg backtracked somewhat on that measure, permitting felony charges to go forward if the alleged robber was carrying a gun)….