Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has been criticized early and sometimes for his insurance policies on crime.
Steven Hirsch
When a perp that even let-’em-loose District Lawyer Alvin Bragg thinks ought to be locked up pre-trial is ready free, no bail wanted, you know one thing’s horribly amiss with New York’s criminal-justice system.
It’s simple to see why even the normally soft-on-crime Manhattan DA wished Lorenzo McLucas behind bars, ASAP. The serial shoplifter has chalked up a mind-boggling 122 arrests (50 this yr alone); letting him stroll and considering he wouldn’t rob once more is the very definition of madness.
Bragg’s workplace informed The Publish it could’ve requested for pre-trial detention right here, however because of New York’s screwed-up bail legal guidelines, the repeat offender couldn’t be detained.
“It’s f–king ridiculous,” a veteran detective fumed to The Publish. “They simply maintain letting him out, and he does the identical factor once more. I really feel so unhealthy for the individuals who personal retail shops.”
McLucas is way from the only instance of this pathology, but a lot of the blame lies with Bragg himself. This week, he reduce a break for 2 girls accused of attacking cops. Earlier this month, Nolan Gonzalez, a sticky-fingered fellow with an extended rap sheet, was let go after Bragg’s workplace downgraded his fees.
There’s additionally Laron Mack — “I steal for a residing” is his precise motto — who has notched up 50-plus busts. James Connelly was busted in December final yr for involvement in 28 separate incidents over three months. The checklist goes on and on . . .
Bragg could also be slowly beginning to shift, at the least on some instances. “We can not settle for a system the place people who shoplift time and again cycle out and in of jail, simply to shoplift once more,” he stated just lately.
His workplace is reportedly working with enterprise teams on quite a few efforts to battle again towards retail theft, together with asking for pretrial detention when shoplifters have felony convictions and aggregating misdemeanor retail crimes into felonies.
However he’s but to acknowledge that this example largely his fault. His insurance policies — beginning with these in his Day 1 memo, which outlines the sentences he gained’t search and the fees he’ll downgrade, and which is nonetheless largely in drive — performed a giant position in getting us right here, by making it simpler for even repeat crooks to get again on the streets rapidly and by signaling to cops and law-abiding residents that large quantities of public unsafety can be tolerated.
Contemplate the phrases of Isaac “Man of Steal” Rodriguez, who was lastly locked up in January after dozens of arrests for stealing to help his drug behavior. Rodriguez really credit his jail stint with saving his life.
DA Bragg ought to take heed to crooks like Rodriguez, if to not the residents whose lives and property depend upon him.
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