Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg tries to clarify 'controversial' charging memo
Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas has the details from New York City on 'Your World.'
On January 1, Alvin Bragg was sworn in as the district attorney of Manhattan, and upon taking office, he implemented some of the most radical and dangerous policies in the country.
His strategy for "fighting crime" — in the city where violent offenses have skyrocketed — is to simply not fight it at all. From refusing to prosecute resisting arrest cases to downgrading felonies like armed robberies, it is clear that Bragg’s "restorative justice" is the last thing New York City needs.
I was a Wisconsin prosecutor for 10 years, and for eight of those years, I had the privilege of being a DA, just like Bragg. However, my idea of justice is very different from his.
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As a DA, I used my discretion to decide the crimes I charged and the plea deals I struck. I was able to offer second chances when appropriate and when warranted, put my whole effort into sending criminals to prison for a long time. I could have made a lot more money at a fancy law firm, but that paycheck could never compete with the pride and satisfaction I felt putting bad guys behind bars and keeping my community safe.
When I was a prosecutor 20 years ago, the profession attracted Republicans, Democrats and Independents dedicated to the mission of dispensing the law and willing to take a government salary for the privilege to serve and administer justice. That’s all changing with the help of early Obama campaign investor and billionaire left-wing activist, George Soros, a man determined to "fundamentally transform" America by electing men like Bragg.
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Around 2015, Soros devised a plan to destabilize America through our criminal justice system. His plan was as devious as it was smart. Instead of working to "reform" the criminal justice system by changing the laws on the books through legislatures, Soros funded a campaign to just change the district attorneys.
Soros understood how tedious and expensive it is to elect enough like-minded state legislators to change laws. Likewise, ballot initiatives can be difficult to coordinate since those pesky voters can make the outcomes unpredictable.
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A liberal, social justice DA has the power to undermine the law by simply not enforcing the law. A DA, through the power of prosecutorial discretion, can reduce charges and sentence recommendations. He or she can enact criminal justice and bail reform without any change in the underlying law.
With less money than it would cost to flip a statehouse, Soros, through his web of organizations and focus on local DA races that too many citizens and politicos take for granted, has fundamentally changed the culture of law enforcement in America. He has successfully recruited and elected people like Bragg to create a new generation of weak-on-crime DAs across the country.
The goal of a woke DA is not justice, rule of law, or even safety – it’s radical racial and social justice.
The crime wave we are experiencing in America is the result of his wicked plan and the electoral "success" of his new recruits. 2020 saw a 30% spike in homicides across the country. Sadly, America’s children are paying the price, but Soros and his paid social justice warriors don’t care.
The infiltration of woke DAs into the justice system will not be an easy problem to fix — reversing trends that have become ingrained in the culture never are. Good, mission-driven prosecutors are leaving DA offices in disgust.
Last week, Bragg’s office lost some good prosecutors. Among the departures is senior trial counsel Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, the attorney who put Harvey Weinstein behind bars.
The NYPD is next. The force’s first female police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, told the men and women who serve under her, "I am very concerned about the implications to your safety as police officers, the safety of the public, and justice for the victims."
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Across America, assistant DAs are being replaced by a younger, woke-er generation of prosecutors who, thanks to the new judicial philosophies being taught at many of today’s law schools, don’t believe in incarceration or cash bail.
Take the socialist San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, another political race George Soros successfully funded. Boudin was actually raised by the infamous Bill Ayers while his fellow Weather Underground terrorist parents served time for murder.
The DA of San Francisco was also a translator for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. When Boudin was elected, Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted, "Now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system." Boudin is indeed transforming San Francisco, for the worse.
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Like DA offices, law enforcement is suffering the same retention crisis. Men and women who become police officers are driven by the desire to keep their communities safe by ridding them of criminals.
For many, it is a family business. Their father, uncle, brother, or sister served. Every single morning, they put on a uniform and risk their lives to protect others for not much money. The rise of the defund the police movement has led to record on-duty deaths and retirements.
When weak prosecutors let career criminals off the hook, the police officers who risked their lives to arrest them become understandably demoralized. Officers stop taking risks when criminals are handed unjustifiably light charges or shortened sentences. That is why police officers are quitting or retiring early in record numbers. Not surprisingly, recruitment is at an all-time low for a profession that has been maligned as racist.
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We are witnessing the rise of a new army of activist prosecutors who are corrupting the quality of officers we will have to police our streets. The goal of a woke DA is not justice, rule of law, or even safety – it’s radical racial and social justice.
Once corrupted, citizens lose trust and confidence in the criminal justice system and that will be even harder to restore than law and order.
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