PENNY STARR The newly installed left-wing District Attorney in Manhattan is already meting out his soft-on-crime prosecution policies as he downgraded the robbery charges against an ex-con who wielded a knife while robbing a drugstore of more than $2,000 in
merchandize.
DA Alvin Bragg, who is one of a slew of leftist District Attorneys around the U.S. whose election campaign was funded by radical left billionaire George Soros, reduced a felony robbery charge to misdemeanor petit larceny, a class A Misdemeanor, which means that there is no mandatory prison sentence.
The New York Post reported on Bragg’s decision in prosecuting “career criminal” 43-year-old William Rolon and reaction to it.
When Rolon left [Duane Reade] at 100 Delancey St. without paying, a female manager confronted him and saw he was brandishing a pocket knife, according to court papers.
“F–k you, I’m taking everything,” he allegedly said.
“Bragg’s policies are an affront to every law-abiding citizen in New York City,” former Manhattan assistant district attorney Daniel Ollen, who’s now a defense lawyer, said. “Violent criminals now have carte blanche to re-offend, knowing full well that they will never again sniff the inside of a jail cell.”
“If you thought things couldn’t get any worse, think again. God help us,” Ollen said.
Law enforcement officials also said a bag of heroin fell out of Rolon’s sock during his arrest.
Police charged Rolon with first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, sources said.
But when Roln was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday, the robbery charge was dropped by the Manhattan DA’s Office and he was instead charged with two counts of petit larceny and related low-level offenses, including second-degree menacing, court papers said.
But Bragg’s move is consistent with a memo he issued on Jan. 3, his first day in office, that promised that certain robberies would be not be prosecuted if there was no “genuine risk of physical harm” — even after the suspect brandished a knife and the store manager told police she feared for her life and did not want to return to work.
“At the time of Rolon’s arrest Saturday, he was wanted in Brooklyn for failing to appear in court in October on charges that include felony assault with a weapon, records show,” the Post reported. “Rolon has a rap sheet that lists more than 20 arrests that date back to 1991 and involve charges of rape, robbery, assault and drug dealing, sources said.”
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