Bragg vs. Trump: NYC is drowning in crime. How does convicting the former president make us safe?

From Chesa Boudin and Larry Krasner to George Gascon and Kim Foxx, proponents of the so-called “progressive” prosecution project have advocated against broad non-prosecution policies and prosecutorial tools such as enhanced sentencing and pretrial detention. Administrative restrictions are often defended as a reasonable exercise of legal discretion. A world with limited resources.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a prime example. I relied on this very rationale It was a self-defense after his infamous “Day One Memo” received near-unanimous public disapproval. The argument goes like this: The judicious exercise of discretion to exclude low-risk and non-violent offenders allows prosecutors to focus on the real bad guys.

Leaving aside the question of whether a strict and comprehensive policy of non-prosecution for a long list of crimes constitutes a mere exercise of “discretion” (as opposed to, say, a unilateral repeal of a duly enacted law), There is still a question as to whether “is a discretionary power.” ‘ is used wisely. In the case of Alvin Bragg, the idea that his broad non-prosecution policy is aimed at facilitating the redirection of funds to more serious types of crime is a sign that his office has no right to pursue criminal prosecutions of the current president. Considering the amount of time and money invested into this project, it makes me question its credibility. -elect Donald J. Trump.

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Earlier this year, Fox News reported on documents obtained by the Heritage Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The documents showed that the Manhattan prosecutor’s office had earmarked $1 million from an office fund to hire outside counsel to deal with a Congressional oversight investigation into the case. case. A rough estimate of how much the department spent on the prosecution has not been made public, but one legal analyst estimated that security costs alone would exceed $50,000 per day during the trial. Then there’s the time and resources authorities have spent on the investigation and litigation itself.

Couldn’t these dollars have been used, for example, to minimize the number of cases dismissed during Mr. Bragg’s tenure (New York’s False Discovery Reform Act of 2020)? This is no doubt due in part to the burden placed on Mr. Bragg’s office by the Wasn’t that money used to go after, I don’t know, repeat retail thieves, drug dealers, and domestic abusers?

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These kinds of questions are especially poignant when one wonders how exactly convicting a former president of felonies related to how financial transactions are documented serves public safety. After all, Donald Trump had no criminal history to speak of, so there was no credible argument that he needed to be incapacitated by incarceration.

Mr. Trump is also a wealthy man (despite the best efforts of New York Attorney General Letitia James), and for Mr. Bragg, who has hinted at the belief that at least some criminal activity is driven by poverty, this That must be important.

The soon-to-be-sworn-in 47th president of the United States is not a young man, but this is important. Because, just ask your local criminal justice reformer, the risk of recidivism decreases with age. Perhaps Mr. Bragg simply wanted to create an opportunity to rehabilitate Mr. Trump. No, the most plausible explanation for Bragg’s movement is political. Winning this particular scalp is the kind of victory that partisans of the Democratic Party could only dream of.

But the man who took Trump apparently wasn’t counting on a successful re-election, which would make it impossible for any sentence to be carried out until the end of the next president’s term, in order to secure the presidency. This further erodes the rewards that could have been obtained. Confidence.

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Mr. Bragg’s foray into legal matters may have come at a price that doesn’t show up on the budget sheet. New Yorkers may have gotten a taste of it this week when a madman committed a fatal assault I’m going to stab you Three people were killed in downtown Braggs Manhattan. The man charged with these murders was arrested eight times in New York City.

How were those cases handled? What should New Yorkers think when it turns out that the perpetrator of a violent crime has an extensive recent criminal history? Mr. Bragg’s office The violent impulses of an obviously unstable criminal with a history of recidivism would not be spent so much time, money, and energy securing high-profile convictions that do nothing for public safety. Could more have been done to protect the people of Manhattan? Will Alvin Bragg’s political career improve?

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As for my colleague at the Manhattan Institute, Hannah Myers: I wrote recentlyTen years ago, “only 45% of Manhattan assault cases were dismissed,” but by 2023 that number has jumped to 66%. In addition to lower conviction rates, crime rates are much higher than they were before the pandemic (especially once the pandemic hit) adjust (changes in daily life, etc.), the fact that deodorants are kept in tight storage makes the picture clearer. However, the picture is not as beautiful as it was just a few years ago. The question is, what are New Yorkers going to do about it?

With several important elections scheduled for next year, will New York join other blue states and cities? pushed back About the excesses of “progressive” criminal justice reform? One thing is (almost) certain: In January 2025, when Mr. Bragg is undoubtedly preparing for re-election, the man he has declared Public Enemy No. 1 will be sworn in as the 47th president. That’s true. The question voters should be asking him is: Was it really worth it?

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