Manhattan District Attorney, Under Fire, Adjusts
Lenient Policies
Alvin Bragg clarified —
and in some cases reversed — his earlier guidance on prosecuting gun possession
and other crimes.
Feb. 4, 2022, 11:44 a.m. ET
The Manhattan district attorney on
Friday issued harsher new guidance on the prosecution of gun possession and
robbery that revised and in some cases reversed policies in a memo, released in
his first week in office, that had been criticized as too lenient.
Within days of taking office on Jan. 1, the district
attorney, Alvin Bragg, instructed prosecutors in the memo to avoid seeking jail time for all but
the most serious crimes. Its release prompted weeks of pushback from police
officers, business owners and public officials and marred the first month of
his tenure.
Much of his time since has been devoted
to clarifying and modifying the policies outlined in the document,
which he has acknowledged was confusing and legalistic.
The memo had
instructed prosecutors to avoid seeking jail time for certain crimes including
robberies, assaults and gun possession. Mr. Bragg has said in several public
appearances that the impact of the changes outlined in the memo had been
overstated and misunderstood.
On Friday, in an email to his staff, Mr.
Bragg said that the document had been “a source of confusion, rather than
clarity,” and emphasized that it was up to the office’s prosecutors to
determine how best to handle individual cases.
“You were hired for your keen judgment,
and I want you to use that judgment — and experience — in every case,” he said.
In the update, Mr. Bragg emphasized
other key points that he has made in recent public appearances, which either
clarify or reverse the policies in the memo:
- He
said that commercial robberies that involved the use of guns — or even
convincing-looking fake guns — would be charged as felonies, as would
robberies committed with other weapons that carried a risk of physical
harm. Initially, Mr. Bragg had said he would only charge such robberies as
felonies if a defendant had created “a genuine risk of physical harm.”
- He
said that gun possession would be taken seriously and that those “walking
the streets with guns” would be prosecuted and held accountable. “The
default in gun cases is a felony prosecution,” he said. Previously, gun
possession had not been among the crimes Mr. Bragg said he would seek
incarceration for.
- He
reiterated that violence against police officers would not be tolerated
and that anyone who harmed an officer, or tried to, would be prosecuted —
a clarification to his earlier announcement that he would not prosecute
the standalone charge of resisting arrest.
Finally, Mr. Bragg insisted that his
office was not bound by the original memo and that it was his prosecutors’
prerogative to determine the course of individual cases.
The release of the updates on Friday
represented a completion of the pivot that Mr. Bragg has made since the
backlash began.
Mr. Bragg, a former
federal prosecutor, campaigned on the need to balance public safety and
fairness. But after a month in which episodes of gun violence have shaken New
York City, his focus has shifted primarily to public safety.
A draft of the memo — often called the
Day One Memo, though it was released several days into Mr. Bragg’s tenure — was
first made public in April.
It was, in effect, a campaign promise,
issued when Mr. Bragg was in the thick of the Democratic primary, running
against seven opponents, many of whom were running on more lenient policies.
The release of the draft coincided with news that Mr. Bragg had won key
endorsements from two important progressives, Zephyr Teachout and Janos Marton.
Mr. Bragg pledged then that he would
put the memo into practice on his first day on the job. But it was not until he
actually implemented the changes that it became clear just how unpopular the
document would be. It caused an uproar within the office, where some assistant
district attorneys who were not authorized to speak publicly said they had
trouble determining what it would mean for their cases in progress.
It caused significant concern outside
his office, particularly among two politically influential factions. Police
officers expressed alarm over Mr. Bragg’s guidance on charges of resisting arrest, even though the policy will affect a
very small number of cases. And small business owners worried that his
intention to charge many robberies as misdemeanors would endanger their
employees and leave them vulnerable to repeat offenders.
New York’s police commissioner,
Keechant Sewell, criticized the policies the week they were
released, saying that they could endanger police officers and the public. She
and Mr. Bragg met the following week and issued a joint statement afterward
calling the meeting productive.
But Mr. Bragg took another political
blow after the fatal shooting of two police officers in Harlem last month.
Though his policies would not have affected how the shooting was handled,
Dominique Luzuriaga, the widow of one of the officers who were killed, mentioned the district attorney explicitly while eulogizing her
husband.
“I know you were tired of these laws,”
she said, addressing her husband, Officer Jason Rivera, directly. “Especially
the ones from the new D.A. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right
now.”
Last week, Mr. Bragg
met with Gov. Kathy Hochul, some of whose political opponents have called for
the district attorney’s removal. Ms. Hochul said that the conversation had been
constructive. “Certainly he needs to do his job, and he’s doing it right now,”
she said.