What you should know
- Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is taking steps to achieve what she described as their shared vision, her first comments since meeting with the controversial new prosecutor.
- The Democrat didn’t elaborate on what she and Bragg discussed when she made the comment during a COVID-19 briefing in the Bronx.
- Bragg took office Jan. 1 and was almost immediately criticized for a set of guidelines he issued to prosecutors, ordering them not to charge certain crimes at all and demote others to lesser charges.
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NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is taking steps to achieve what she described as their shared vision, her first comments since meeting with the controversial new prosecutor.
The Democrat didn’t elaborate on what she and Bragg discussed when she made the comment during a COVID-19 briefing in the Bronx. Previously, he told the New York Post newspaper that he had “options” and knew “very well” his power to eliminate him.
Bragg took office Jan. 1 and was almost immediately criticized for a set of guidelines he issued to prosecutors, ordering them not to charge certain crimes at all and demote others to lesser charges.
Among the most controversial of those changes was an order not to prosecute some cases of resisting arrest, and another ordering that the felony of armed robbery be downgraded in many cases to the misdemeanor of shoplifting.
His order came against a backdrop of a sharp rise in crime in New York City. In the New York City Police Department’s Northern Manhattan Patrol District, serious crimes are up 23% this year compared to the same period last year, led by a 43% increase in robberies.
Shooting incidents have also nearly doubled. The numbers are even higher in the NYPD’s South Manhattan Patrol Precinct.
The widow of one of two officers killed by a gunman when responding to a domestic disturbance call in Harlem less than two weeks ago further fueled the controversy surrounding Bragg, saying in a tearful eulogy that “the system keeps failing. We’re not safe anymore, not even service members.”.
Even before that, Hochul had said he was monitoring the situation closely and was well aware of the powers the governor’s office has to remove a district attorney from office.
She told the New York Post that she was “not prepared to undo the will of the people,” but that it was her responsibility to meet with Bragg and consider whether some cases should be reassigned if they are not prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Hochul is running for re-election this fall, and several of her opponents, both Republicans and Democrats, have criticized her for not removing Bragg from office, as she has the authority to do under state law.
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