New Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg stops seeking prison sentences for most crimes

Manhattan’s new district attorney has unveiled a sweeping new policy to only seek prison sentences for a handful of offenses, and downgrade or dismiss charges for many felony crimes – and Mayor Eric Adams is on board with the plan.

Alvin Bragg, who took office over the weekend, revealed his progressive new approach in a ‘day one policies and procedures’ memo released on Monday.

The Democrat said offenses like marijuana misdemeanors, prostitution, resisting arrest and fare dodging will no longer be prosecuted. 

Bragg instructed prosecutors to stop seek prison sentences for crimes except for homicides, assaults resulting in serious injury, domestic violence felonies, sex offenses, public corruption, and ‘major economic crimes’.  

The directive comes despite New York City seeing a surge in violent crime. City-wide, crime statistics published in December by the NYPD show that shootings, murders and auto grand larceny have all nearly doubled while murder is up 50 percent in the city compared to 2019. 

New York City is currently experiencing soaring crime rates and an increase in shooting incidents not seen since the mid-2000s

Aside from the same list of offenses, Bragg’s prosecutors have also been told not to seek bail requirements for suspects awaiting trial.  

The memo also outlines a number of circumstances in which charges should be downgraded, including certain cases of armed robbery and drug dealing. 

Bragg also vowed to stop prosecuting many low-level offenses including subway turnstile jumping, prostitution, and trespassing. He will continue his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr’s policy of declining to prosecute marijuana possession.

New Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop who swept into office on a campaign vow to crack down on soaring crime in the city, nevertheless expressed support for Bragg’s new polices at a Tuesday press conference, saying: ‘I like Alvin.’ 

‘I believe that he’s going to be a good district attorney, and I’m going to sit down and have a conversation with him as we build out what we need to do around public safety,’ the mayor said.

‘I think he’s on Team Public Safety,’ added Adams. ‘Team Public Safety is not only handcuffs, Team Public Safety is also ending the pipeline that turns people into career criminals.’ 

In just his first few hours as mayor, Adams had to confront New York City’s spiraling crime problem head-on as he called police about an assault in progress.

Footage posted to social media on Saturday showed Adams calling 911 as he passed through the Kosciuszko J stop in Brooklyn on his way to City Hall – and witnessed three men fighting on the street below.

One of the men was seen punching another man on the ground. Later, one of the suspects lifts a victim up and continues to punch him. 

New Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop who swept into office on a campaign vow to crack down on soaring crime in the city, nevertheless expressed support for Bragg’s new polices 

As he made his way to City Hall for the first time on Saturday, New York City’s new Mayor Eric Adams called 911 about three men brawling on the street

They were seen in video tackling each other and punching one another in broad daylight

As of Thursday, the city had recorded 481 murders, which have been fueled by an increase in gun crime, according to city data. 

The last time the city hit more than 500 murders was 2011, under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when homicides ended up totaling 515. 

The rest of the decade had seen a sharp decrease in murders, going down to 419 in 2012 and heading as low as 292 in 2017 under now former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

But the numbers have climbed since, up to 462 in 2020 during the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city, which also saw stores hit by looting, and riots in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. 

Those numbers have continued to go up this year, even as the city reopens, and are on pace to hit 10-year highs and the numbers continue to increase of late. 

Between November 28 and December 26, homicides were double what they were in the same period last year, with 41 murders compared to 24 in 2020.

Overall, crime has risen 6.13 percent in New York City over 2020 through December 26.

The biggest rise came in felony assaults like the ones previously mentioned, which rose 9.6 percent from 2020.  

Murders (4.1 percent), shooting victims (0.6 percent), rapes (3.3 percent), and

Nevertheless, Bragg, who is also elected and made history as the first black person to hold the Manhattan DA’s office, may also claim a mandate for his policies, which he insists will ‘make us safer.’ 

‘I have lived my entire life in Harlem and have seen all sides of the criminal legal system both professionally and personally,’ Bragg said in a statement. 

‘These policies are rooted in these life experiences and professional experiences and substantiated by data,’ he continued.

‘They reflect both the need for fundamental reforms in the criminal legal system and the need for community safety. 

‘The two goals of justice and safety are not opposed to each other. They are inextricably linked. We deserve and demand both, and that has been the focus of my career, and indeed, my life,’ said Bragg.

Bragg added: ‘These policy changes not only will, in and of themselves, make us safer; they also will free up prosecutorial resources to focus on violent crime.’ 

‘To that end, new initiatives and policies on guns, sex crimes, hate crimes, and other matters will be announced in the coming weeks,’ he said. 

Bragg inherited an investigation into Donald Trump and his business practices from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr (above), who declined to seek reelection

As district attorney, Bragg inherited an investigation into Donald Trump and his business practices from his predecessor, Vance, who declined to seek reelection last year after 12 years in the high-profile job.

After weeks of speculation about whether Vance would close his tenure with a bang by indicting Trump, the former D.A. has passed that decision to Bragg, a civil rights lawyer and former federal prosecutor who was sworn in at a private ceremony, in part because of COVID-19 concerns.

Bragg told CNN last month that he’ll be directly involved in the Trump matter. 

He also said he has asked the two veteran prosecutors who led the case under Vance – general counsel Carey Dunne and former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz – to stay on and see it through.

‘This is obviously a consequential case, one that merits the attention of the D.A. personally,’ Bragg told CNN.