New York City‘s Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thursday that a controversial memo he released at the start of his term left “the wrong impression” about his law enforcement policy plans, adding that it “left many New Yorkers justifiably concerned.”
Bragg, who took on the elected role at the beginning of the year, was speaking at the New York University’s School of Law Thursday afternoon when he said he took “full accountability” for the confusion the January 3 memo caused, further describing the missive as being “unclear and legalistic.”
FORMER PROSECUTORS CALL MANHATTAN DA’S SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES ‘DEFINITION OF INSANITY’
Then-Democratic candidate for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to the press after casting his ballot in the New York City election in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., November 2, 2021. Reuters/Mike Segar
The memo called for Manhattan prosecutors to look for alternatives to prison sentences for criminals convicted of several kinds of offenses, and “reduce pretrial incarceration,” unless for “very serious cases.”
It also directed his office not to prosecute offenders accused of the following crimes, barring extenuating circumstances: turnstile jumping, resisting arrest, trespassing and driving without a license, among others.
In a different example, he directed prosecutors to reduce armed robbery cases to petit larcenies, barring certain circumstances.
READ DISTRICT ATTORNEY ALVIN BRAGG’S JAN. 3 MEMO HERE:
But Bragg clarified on Thursday that the memo was meant more so as guidance for his staff.
“The purpose of the memo is to provide prosecutors with a framework for how to approach cases in the best interest of safety and justice. Each case is fact specific,” he said.
The former federal prosecutor – the first Black DA in Manhattan’s history – also said his office “will be prosecuting all robberies of a gun as a felony.”
“Let me be clear,” he added, “any use of a gun to rob a store by definition is and must be and will be treated seriously.”
He called gun possession cases “a key part of our public safety strategy.”
“People walking the streets with guns will be held accountable,” he added. “We will also use gun possession cases as an opportunity to trace the sources of illegal guns and build cases against gun traffickers.”
And violence against police and law enforcement “will not be tolerated,” he said.
Bragg, who grew up in Harlem, said his office needs to focus on “the truly violent activity that is disabling to many of our communities.”
On Saturday, 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go was killed when she was pushed in front of an oncoming train while standing on a platform inside the Times Square subway station. Her alleged attacker, a homeless man named Simon Martial, was inside the subway station for only nine minutes before he struck, police have said.
Six police officers were assigned to the station that day, and two were on the other end of the platform at the time. Martial, 61, was charged with second-degree murder and was ordered held without bail.
A commuter talks to a police officer with a dog at the Times Square subway station where Michelle Go was killed after being pushed onto subway tracks on January 15, in New York on January 18, 2022. (Photo by Ed Jones / AFP) (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
(Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged that he has not felt safe on the subway system at times. When asked about safety in the subways on Thursday, Bragg pointed to his decision not to handle fare evasion criminally, instead civilly.
“And focusing like a laser on the violence that’s happening on the subway,” he said. “That will have real deterrent value, will keep us safer and will help us get back and running. But we also have to separate what is true violence and is really imperiling our city and destabilizing it.”
He emphasized the need for services in Black and Brown communities.
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Asked about how his policies will impact the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, he said hate crimes, particularly assaults, “are serious.” He said his office did not have enough lawyers focusing on the issue, and added: “We need to shift our resources from some of the things that I don’t think we should be given primacy to, to something key like hate crimes.”
The district attorney’s statements came just hours after a police officer was shot on Staten Island early Thursday, and an 11-month-old girl was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight and struck by a bullet in the Bronx on Wednesday night. Neither incident happened in his jurisdiction.
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During a subsequent press conference on Thursday, Bragg called the shooting of the 11-month-old “horrific.”
“The safest place to place in the world, a baby in a parents arms, to be shot is just heartbreaking,” he said. He later added: “If anyone didn’t think we were in a crisis before … they should realize now that we are in a crisis, and we’ve got to address it and address it collaboratively and with all of our resources.”
Fox News’ Courtney Crawford and Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
