Jose Alba (62), was taken into custody for the murder of Austin Simon, 35. (For us non-New Yorkers, a bodega is a convenience store that doesn’t sell gas.) Alba worked as a clerk at the shop on Friday and a woman attempted to use her EBT card to buy chips. She didn’t have enough money on the card to purchase the chips, so she called on her boyfriend, Simon, to fix her lack of funds by roughing up Alba and getting her the chips. Simon, whose occupation as far as I can tell was “violent ex-con,” felt up to the task.
WARNING! This video contains explicit violence.
In most places, when a 62-year-old man is attacked by a guy 30 years younger, at least 6-inches taller, and who outweighs him by several dozen pounds, in the course of what might be construed as an armed robbery but definitely was a physical assault, the call of “self-defense” is a no-brainer. But in New York, where the district attorney is the crime-loving Alvin Bragg, if you are a law-abiding citizen who does not submit to being prey for NYC’s burgeoning criminal class, you are out of luck.
Alba was held on $250,000 bail. To give you an example, if one NYC police officer is killed and another wounded, you are allowed to walk away on $15,000 bail. See NYC Cop Shot with Illegal Weapon, and the Shooter Dies. NYC Mayor Eric Adams Doesn’t Have a Gun Problem, He Has a Sanity Problem. You are eligible for no bail if you’re a felon who has outstanding warrants and robs a drugstore of $2,000, while holding an employee at knifepoint. Levon Satamian (my colleague) posted this information in NY Post Ed. Board: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Criminizes Self-Defense while Treating Criminals As Victims. Please take a look at it.
That amount was not possible for Dominican immigrants. He asked his family to go to GoFundMe. GoFundMe was true to its principles and shut down the fundraising event. It is also the site through which bail money was raised by the rioters in the summer 2020.
Thursday, after spending a week in Riker’s Island and no small part due to the furor, an NYC judge lowered Alba’s bail to $50,000, of which only $5,000 had to be posted.
Eric Adams, NYC mayor, was able to zip to Alba’s aid and is now giving an excellent interview.
This is great news. Jose Alba got released after his bail was reduced by a judge and his boss and relatives raised enough money for him to be freed on bail. @NYCMayor Adams stood up for Mr. Alba, saying, “My heart goes out for this hard-working, honest New Yorker that was doing his job.”https://t.co/IS2nr3Sx9O
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) July 7, 2022
This is it: @NYCMayorVisits the Hamilton Heights bodega that was the scene of an earlier stabbing. pic.twitter.com/BMGyhBsUTg
— NYC Mayor’s Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) July 7, 2022
Adams says it isn’t up to him to tell the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg what to do, but he could’ve made an issue of it. He could’ve supported Alba much earlier. He could’ve visited Alba at Rikers Island. Bragg was shamed into supporting the bad guys by Bragg with all his tools. All of this was not the case. The national press was his initial comment on the matter.
Since Rudy Giuliani’s time, New York City has been in a terrible state of decline. There is now no safe place to live or work. New York Police Department has been eliminated. The criminal-friendly judicial system has been weakened. Adams might care enough to use Alba’s case as a point of rallying support for retaking control. But he doesn’t, so it won’t.
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