By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
On Sunday, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton ripped Manhattan’s new district attorney Alvin Bragg saying his policies are a “recipe for disaster”. Speaking on John Catsimatidis’ radio show, Bratton, the 74-year-old democrat, also blamed George Soros for the election results, claiming the billionaire has “effectively destroyed the criminal justice system in America.”
“The DA is effectively handcuffing the police,” Bratton said, “basically saying they don’t have any confidence in the police force. They don’t trust them. They are effectively removing so many tools out of the toolbox … that we know kept New York safe for the last 30 years.”
“He’s well-intended in the sense that he’s trying to find a way to address some of the issues of the past,” Bratton said of Bragg, on the Sunday radio talk show. “You don’t address the issues of the past by effectively decriminalizing just about everything in New York City.”
As per the NY Post, the newly minted DA, a Harvard Law graduate, immediately began fulfilling his progressive campaign platform of cutting many criminals slack while focusing on only the most severe crimes. “Reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm will make us safer,” Bragg wrote in a Jan. 3 memo to staff.
Bratton said that working with Bragg will be a challenge for NYC’s new mayor Eric Adams, who has promised a tough-on-crime stance. “I don’t know how Mr. Adams is going to do that when the DA is effectively handcuffing the police,” he said.
Bratton also blamed philanthropist Soros and his Open Society group of non-profits for their contribution of $1 million to Bragg through the Color of Change political action committee, as per the Post. “If you look at every city in America that has violent crime increases and disorder increases …what is the one common denominator?” Bratton said. “District attorneys, almost all of whom are funded phenomenally by George Soros.”
“Soros and his people have figured out how to basically gerrymander the system,” Bratton claimed, saying he has “effectively destroyed the criminal justice system in America.”
Bragg, 48, who has been defending himself all week, responded to say he will keep doing what he promised to do. “We said we were going to marry fairness and safety and we laid out a specific plan,” he said in a speech at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters. “We put on the website, we put it in print and this week after January 1st we got down to work and we are doing what we said we would do.”
