The hidden side of politics

NYC crime victims tell their stories to House Judiciary Committee

Reported by Washington Times:

NEW YORK — Crime victims and their families pointed fingers Monday at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his refusal to prosecute serious offenses as the root of the violent crime problem in the borough.

The witnesses testified before the House Judiciary Committee during a remote hearing in downtown Manhattan intended to scrutinize the soaring crime rate in the city. GOP lawmakers also are criticizing Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, for prosecuting former President Donald Trump for alleged business fraud while they say violent crime is out of control.

According to city statistics released in February, more than 170,000 felony crimes were reported in New York City last year, the most since 2006, when the New York Police Department began making the numbers publicly available.

The hearing spearheaded by Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, is being held amid scrutinizing Mr. Bragg, a Democratic D.A., and his prosecution of Mr. Trump.

“In this country, justice is supposed to be blind, regardless of race, religion or creed. However, here in Manhattan, scales of justice are weighed down by politics,” Mr. Jordan said during his opening remarks. “For the district attorney, justice isn’t blind. It’s about looking for opportunities to advance a political agenda, a radical political agenda.”

He asserted, “Rather than enforcing the law, the DA is using his office to do the bidding of left-wing campaign funders. He’s taken his soft-on-crime approach to the real criminals.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said Mr. Jordan was just playing defense for Mr. Trump, as the former president faces 34 felony charges from Mr. Bragg’s office related to a hush-money indictment.

“The chairman is doing the bidding of Donald Trump to smear and intimidate the duly elected District Attorney in Manhattan from doing the work his constituents elected him to do,” said Mr. Nadler, the top Democrat on the committee. “They have demanded access to the inner workings of an ongoing criminal case for information to which they know they are not entitled.”

Madeline Brame, chairwoman of the Victims Rights Reform Council and mother of a homicide victim, told the committee that a group of four perpetrators violently assaulted her son but only two were charged and convicted for his murder.

“Me, my family and my grandchildren, we were treated like garbage [by Mr. Bragg] … and I’m not the only one,” she said. “There are hundreds and thousands of us. We don’t give a damn about your politics. We don’t care. It could be the man on the moon who’s running for president.”

Barry Borgen, the father of a victim of an anti-Semitic assault in Times Square two years ago, told the committee that Mr. Bragg’s office offered a cushy plea deal to one of the accused attackers.

Mr. Borgen excoriated Mr. Nadler and Sen. Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.

“You’re a Jewish New Yorker, I called your office. There was no response,” he said to Mr. Nadler. “I called Mr. Schumer’s office, another Jewish New Yorker. No response. No one called us back … you have Jewish roots here and behavior like this enables D.A. Bragg to do whatever he wants to do.”

Democrats invited witnesses who blamed the crime issue on Republican-controlled states with looser gun laws, saying they have allowed guns to be trafficked to blue cities.

Additionally, the Democratic lawmakers and their witnesses pounded Republican lawmakers for attacking New York City’s crime rate and compared the numbers to GOP-controlled states.

“What we found when we looked at between 2000 and 2020 is the murder rate in red states, as defined by the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 versus 25 states [for] Joe Biden — the murder rate in red states was higher than the murder rate in blue states in all 21 of those years,” said Jim Kessler, co-founder and senior vice president for policy of Third Way.

Democrats called the committee a “sham” and accused the witnesses of being “props” of the Republican lawmakers on the committee, which GOP members disputed.

The hearing became raucous from time to time with protesters.

Visitors sitting in the gallery, most of whom were victims’ advocates, heckled the Democratic lawmakers during their remarks. One individual stood up and called the Democratic members “scumbags.”

Gun control protesters and supporters of Mr. Bragg attempted to bust into the committee room at the start of the hearing and accused Mr. Jordan of being a “traitor.”

Source:Washington Times

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