Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has nothing to brag about.
Sure, he’s the district attorney in one of the largest districts in the nation, if not the largest. That was just winning an election, which isn’t nothing, but it’s still not the end all, be all of anything.
No, Bragg has a problem. It seems that his priorities are more than a little skewed. That was on display with his failed prosecution of Daniel Penny. Now, New York Republicans are calling on him to either resign or for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to kick Bragg to the curb.
New York Republicans are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to fire Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg following his failed prosecution of Daniel Penny over Jordan Neely’s chokehold death.
On Monday, a 12-member Manhattan jury found the ex-Marine not guilty in a verdict that came after days of jury deliberations and courtroom wrangling. Penny was cleared of criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death after a more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury was deadlocked.
“Alvin Bragg has failed in his responsibilities to enforce the law and keep New Yorkers safe. Sadly, he has engaged in political prosecutions on numerous cases, including President Trump, Daniel Penny and Jose Alba,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., posted on social media. “He should be removed from office immediately.”
In case the name Jose Alba isn’t familiar, that’s the bodega clerk who killed an attacker in self-defense.
All three of those cases were prosecuted, at least two of which unsuccessfully, but all three were motivated by politics. There was a public outcry and Bragg prosecuted two of those cases purely to score well with the electorate. He explicitly looked for reasons to go after Trump for similar reasons. He knew the average NYC voter would like it if he could lock Trump up and keep him from running for office again.
We see how that worked out.
Now, realistically, there’s not a chance in the world of Bragg being removed. Hochul shares enough of the same political views as Bragg that she’s unlikely to see anything wrong with these prosecutions. It’s part of the reason that Hochul’s approval rating is barely north of HIV’s.
She’s not going to remove him and he’s not going to remove himself. That’ll be up to the voters, and I don’t see them going after Bragg except for potentially figuring that he’s just terrible at his job since both Alba and Penny walked.
That’s not why they should be upset, but voters in the Big Apple tend to be upset for the wrong reasons, even if it’s focused on the right people. This is probably one of those cases. If it is, the results could end up being the exact same, with Bragg looking for work and a new DA that might actually have a functional brain that’s not focused on ideology rather than the law.
Then there’s the fact that he also went after people over fake vaccine cards while letting violent perpetrators walk. This could be a case of them being upset for all the right reasons.
Either way, I don’t see Bragg leaving office voluntarily and I don’t see Hochul stepping in, either.
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