New York City is trying to digest the latest example of incompetence from its district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who continues to show a degree of sympathy for criminals that could be called … criminal.
When Manhattan convenience store clerk Jose Alba was attacked by the irate boyfriend of a woman who couldn’t pay for her purchase, he grabbed a knife and defended himself, stabbing the attacker five times and killing him.
It’s all on surveillance video. Alba, 51, was even stabbed himself in the fracas, by the attacker’s girlfriend. She has not been charged, reports The New York Post.
Alba is now in jail at Riker’s Island, charged with murder, and unable to post $250,000 bail. The quarter-million figure was just half of what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office demanded, despite the surveillance video and despite the fact that Alba has no criminal record.
The fatal stabbing of Austin Simon followed his girlfriend’s attempt to buy chips with an EBT debit card that was rejected. The 32-year-old woman told her boyfriend, Simon, who then attacked Alba behind the counter. The girlfriend allegedly stabbed Alba in the shoulder with a knife she had in her purse, according to Alba’s defense attorney, but she faces no charges.
Bragg’s office, however, charged Alba, a father of three who moved to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic 30 years ago, with second-degree murder. Alba became a U.S. citizen 14 years ago.
Bragg’s soft-on-criminals approach is turning New York City into a place of fear and chaos, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin promised last month that he would launch an “expedited” process to remove the DA on “Day One” if he is elected in November.
The Post editorial board has called for Bragg’s removal.
