DA Alvin Bragg brushes off concerns on crime: ‘Off to keep Manhattan safe’
Embattled Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brushed off New Yorkers’ concerns about rising crime Wednesday — a day after Democrat Kathy Hochul won the governor’s race, saving him from the chopping block.
“Manhattan voters have spoken yet again,” Bragg told The Post before dashing into his office at 1 Hogan Place. “Off to keep Manhattan safe.”
Hochul raked in 82% of the vote in Manhattan in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, who promised to boot soft-on-crime prosecutors like Bragg — something a governor has the power to do under Article XIII of the state constitution.
The Long Island congressman also vowed to scrap the state’s controversial 2019 criminal justice reforms, which prohibit judges from setting bail in most criminal cases.
Bragg has been the poster boy for the lenient state bail reforms since taking off in January.
He raised eyebrows when he issued his infamous “Day 1 memo,” annouincing that he would drop some misdemeanor cases, not seek bail for most defendants and downgrade certain felonies to misdemeanors.
During his first 10 months in office, Bragg, a former civil rights lawyer from Harlem, has seen major crimes spike by 30.5% in the borough over the same period last year.
The citywide average is 29.6%, statistics show.
Crime is particularly rampant in the Midtown South Precinct, whose confines are a hub for city workers, residents, and tourists and include Times Square, Penn Station, and Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square.
Murders are up 14% (24 from 21) from 2021, while burglaries jumped 45% (2,476 from 1,710), grand larceny is up 53% (9,648 from 6,295) and robbery soared 32% (1,785 from 1,356). according to the data.
In the weeks leading up to the election, Hochul repeatedly downplayed the crime wave in the Big Apple and ignored pleas from Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams to roll back the reforms to help quell the spiking crime in the city.
Adams, a retired NYPD captain, lobbied lawmakers in July to strengthen bail laws and asked Hochul to schedule a special session of the legislature to address his concerns.
Hochul denied the request and said she would wait until January — and after Election Day.