District Attorney Alvin Bragg told his congregation he's had a 'challenging two weeks' since his start as Manhattan's top prosecutor, days after it was reported that nine attorneys have quit his office over his 'soft-on-crime' policies.
'It has been a challenging two weeks church family, challenging. That hour with the Sunday school is one of the best hours of the week. I always tell them, "They do more for me than I do for them,'" he said.
Bragg made the comments during Sunday service at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. The church was honoring the the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. ahead of MLK Day on Monday.
The Harvard-educated former federal prosecutor dismissed criticisms that he's naïve about public safety after he circulated a day-one memo earlier this month vowing to stop going after some low-level offenses, including subway turnstile jumping, prostitution, and trespassing.
The January 3 memo also outlines a number of circumstances in which charges should be downgraded, including certain cases of armed robbery and drug dealing.
Nine assistant district attorneys reportedly quit since Bragg took over, including John Irwin and Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, who successfully prosecuted sex pest Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Meanwhile, overall crime in New York City is up 30 percent compared to the same time last year, with robbery up by 25 percent and felony assault up by nearly five percent.
'It has been a challenging two weeks church family, challenging,' said new Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg during a Sunday service at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem
Bragg, 48, defended his day-one policy memo instructing prosecutors to stop going after some low-level offenses, which generated criticism that he's 'soft on crime'
'Part of the discussion that' been so frustrating the last couple weeks is the suggestion that … I don't know public safety,' Bragg said Sunday. 'The reality is … before I turned 21, I had a semi-automatic weapon pointed at my head, I had a knife to my throat, a homicide victim at my doorstep, and was shot at. I know public safety.'
Bragg, 48, admitted that the tone - or grammar - of his day-one policy memo may have been divisive, but he stood by its spirit.
'You know what happens when you provide housing and employment to those returning from incarceration? Recidivism goes down. So, we started the conversation,' Bragg said, as reported in the New York Post.
'Maybe I had a comma out of place, maybe I didn’t use the exact right words, but the urgency of now didn’t start the conversation, so we started it.
'And it may be a long conversation. [I'm] harboring no illusions that the storm will end soon.'
The Democrat has said that offenses like marijuana misdemeanors, prostitution, resisting arrest and fare dodging will no longer be prosecuted. He will continue his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr's policy of declining to prosecute marijuana possession.
Robbers wielding guns or other deadly weapons to steal from stores and businesses will be prosecuted only for petty larceny - a misdemeanor - provided no victims were injured and there is no 'genuine risk of physical harm,' according to Bragg's memo.
Also, convicts who are caught with weapons other than guns will have their charges downgraded to misdemeanors, as long as they are not also charged with more serious offenses, though the felony would normally see crooks jailed for seven years.
Drug dealers suspected of 'acting as a low-level agent of a seller' will only be charged
