{"id":83233,"date":"2022-07-09T14:53:39","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T19:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=83233"},"modified":"2022-07-09T14:53:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T19:53:39","slug":"83233","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=83233","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The charging of Jose Alba and the war on self-defense.<\/a><\/p>\n

The war on self-defense continues,\u00a0in New York City this time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You know how it goes with these\u00a0Soros-backed leftist DAs<\/a>\u00a0such as New York\u2019s Alvin Bragg. When Bragg was elected in January, I wrote\u00a0this post<\/a>\u00a0about his plans and what to expect. They\u2019re the same sort of things we\u2019ve become familiar with from the now-recalled Chesa Boudin of San Franisco, and from the hopefully-soon-to-be-recalled George Gascon of Los Angeles. In that post I mentioned that this was one of Bragg\u2019s awful\u00a0guidelines<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Armed robbers who use guns or other deadly weapons to stick up stores and other businesses will be prosecuted only for petty larceny, a misdemeanor, provided no victims were seriously injured and there\u2019s no \u201cgenuine risk of physical harm\u201d to anyone. Armed robbery, a class B felony, would typically be punishable by a maximum of 25 years in prison, while petty larceny subjects offenders to up to 364 days in jail and a $1,000 fine\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So recently Bragg finally found a criminal worthy of high bail and very serious charges: murder. Unfortunately \u2013 but not surprisingly \u2013 it was\u00a0a grocery store worker defending himself<\/a>\u00a0against an attack:<\/p>\n

Alba was manning the counter<\/a>\u00a0at Hamilton Heights Grocery on Broadway and West 139th Street Friday night when Austin Simon, a 35-year-old career criminal on parole for assaulting a police officer, stormed behind the counter and shoved him into a wall, surveillance video shows.<\/p>\n

The ex-con then grabbed Alba as the frightened clerk tried to get past him \u2014 getting his hands on a knife and plunging it into Simon at least five times.<\/p>\n

During the fight, Simon\u2019s girlfriend allegedly pulled a knife from her purse and stabbed Alba three times in the shoulder and hand, according to his attorney.<\/p>\n

She has not been charged, with the DA\u2019s office saying only \u201cwe are continuing to review the evidence and the investigation is ongoing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She\u2019d only be charged with a misdemeanor according to Bragg\u2019s guidelines anyway, right?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read several articles about the incident, and it appears to have begun when the girlfriend tried to buy a bag of potato chips and her EBT debit card was declined. She left the store and called boyfriend Simon for assistance. He came and assaulted the older, smaller man, who grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon during the fight while Simon was apparently trying to drag him out of the store. There are also reports that the girlfriend stabbed Alba in the arm with another knife; I\u2019m not sure what the time frame was for that, before or after or during the stabbing of Simon. The entire episode was captured on store security tape and can be viewed at many of the articles.<\/p>\n

Originally,\u00a0Bragg\u2019s office asked<\/a>\u00a0for sky-high bail of $500,000; it was set at $250,000 and later, after an outcry, reduced to $50,000 of which only $5,000 had to actually be posted. Alba was freed with an ankle bracelet. Alba has no prior record, but note that Simon, the dead man, was out on parole after being charged with assaulting a police officer.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that a grand jury would be likely to indict Alba for this, even in New York, and if indicted I don\u2019t think a jury would convict him. Even\u00a0the mayor has taken Alba\u2019s side<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 although he also refused to condemn Bragg.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New York, unlike California, doesn\u2019t have a recall provision for DAs. But\u00a0there is a way<\/a>\u00a0to remove Bragg, although it\u2019s not in Adams\u2019 power. It\u2019s in the hands of the governor, who happens to be the abominable Hochul. This was a campaign issue even prior to the Simon killing, and Hochul\u2019s opponent\u00a0Lee Zeldin is making sure<\/a>\u00a0the public is aware of it:<\/p>\n

Among those who slammed Bragg on Thursday was Republican Gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.<\/p>\n

\u2018My first Day 1 action as Governor next January will be to fire Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg,\u2019 he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The arrest and high bail of Alba was deliberate on Bragg\u2019s part, meant to intimidate anyone with the temerity to defend himself or herself. If Bragg is allowed to remain in office, this sort of thing will recur. There\u2019s a definite pattern, and it\u2019s the same\u00a0pattern that emerged years ago<\/a>\u00a0in Britain in order to discourage self-defense. We have a more robust self-defense tradition here than there, however, and that persists to a certain extent. But Bragg seems quite determined to end it.<\/p>\n

That tradition of self-defense is reflected at least somewhat in\u00a0a bipartisan call<\/a>\u00a0from some NY politicians asking Bragg to drop charges against Alba:<\/p>\n

The bipartisan group of City Council members said the DA\u2019s controversial, progressive approach to law enforcement was \u201crewarding the guilty and punishing the innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that you are even prosecuting Mr. Alba reveals how your perverse sense of justice not only protects violent criminals, but actively seeks to destroy the lives of crime victims,\u201d the lawmakers wrote Bragg on Thursday\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are simply rewarding the guilty and punishing the innocent.\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

The letter was signed by Councilmembers Robert Holden (D-Queens), Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn), David Carr (R-Staten Island), Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn), Joann Ariola (R-Queens) and Vickie Paladino (R-Queens).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two of the signers are Republicans from Staten Island, the only reddish borough in New York City, and the smallest. One of the signers, a Republican from Queens, is none other than Vickie Paladino. I covered her\u00a0in this post from two years ago<\/a>. She wasn\u2019t a City Council member then, but apparently she is now. Extremely feisty lady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The charging of Jose Alba and the war on self-defense. The war on self-defense continues,\u00a0in New York City this time. You know how it goes with these\u00a0Soros-backed leftist DAs\u00a0such as New York\u2019s Alvin Bragg. When Bragg was elected in January, I wrote\u00a0this post\u00a0about his plans and what to expect. They\u2019re the same sort of things … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rights","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83234,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83233\/revisions\/83234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}