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HomeOpinionAlvin Bragg's agenda is STILL irrelevant to city's real needs

Alvin Bragg’s agenda is STILL irrelevant to city’s real needs

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With shoplifting and violent crime still far too high across the city, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last week pushed for . . . more hate-crime laws.

Huh? He barely prosecutes felonies already on the books.

Yet Bragg joined with state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblywoman Grace Lee (both D-Manhattan) to ask the Legislature to add 30-plus crimes (such as forcible touching, graffiti and sexual assault) to the list of 66 charges eligible for hate-crime status.

For the record, we’re against hate, too, especially with the city facing a major uptick in antisemitic assaults — but criminalizing it has always been a dubious enterprise.

Showing a motive for a crime is a regular part of prosecution, but adding thought-crime penalties on top of the sentence is an invitation to mind-reading that doesn’t belong in the lawbooks.

The law should focus on anti-social actions — but doing that is evidently something Bragg . . . hates.

At least, he doesn’t like sending anyone to jail or prison for much of anything.

Starting with his disgraceful “Day 1” memo to his office, Bragg has emphasized a “decarceral” agenda that treats prosecution as a major threat to society.

Along with state criminal-justice “reforms” pushing the same misbegotten approach, that’s produced a steep rise in shootings and other violent crimes — as well as record shoplifting that’s forced many retailers to close and left the rest locking up most of their shelves, even the toothpaste.


Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is pushing for the city to expand its hate crime laws.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is pushing for the city to expand its hate crime laws.
G.N.Miller/NYPost

The DA’s lowlights include a sweet-heart plea deal last December for a gangbanger with a history of robbing high-end Madison Avenue boutiques (Bragg said his office had too much on its plate), the aborted murder charge against bodega worker Jose Alba in a clear case of self-defense as well as charging Marine Corps vet Daniel Penny with manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally unhinged vagrant threatening other straphangers.

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All of which suggests Bragg would use any new hate-crime powers not to target real threats to public safety but to further the progressive war on what the left sees as “wrongthink.”



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