DAmagoguery

We’ve objected to plenty of what Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s done so far. Overriding veteran prosecutors, he’s pulled punches against Donald Trump. His Day One policy memo committed to declining to prosecute too many types of crimes, ruled out pretrial detention and prison in too many cases and effectively downgraded some armed robbery.

But some of those pledges have been pulled back, and like them or not, his policies are within the discretion of an otherwise competent district attorney. Legal precedent in this state gives DAs here wide discretion. Nor can anyone claim a bait-and-switch: Bragg laid out his agenda clearly in his campaign last year before winning the votes of more Manhattanites than his rivals.

All of which is why it would be a significant offense against democracy for a governor to yank him, as Democrat Tom Suozzi, Republican Lee Zeldin and others now goad Kathy Hochul to do and promise they’d do if elected.

DA Chesa Boudin was recalled by San Franciscans, whose confidence he’d understandably lost, using a deeply disruptive process we don’t need here in New York that gives voters a chance to change their minds in the middle of an elected official’s term. Here, the question is different: Whether one elected official should be able to boot another out of office. Such a powerful weapon should be deployed in only the most extreme circumstances.

Under Section 34 of the state Public Officers Law, governors have wide authority; investigators can subpoena witnesses, present a report, and then Albany’s top dog can bring out the hook. By our lights, corruption or extreme abdication are legitimate grounds for removal. George Pataki stood on solid ground when he superseded Bronx DA Rob Johnson in a single case, the prosecution of the accused killer of NYPD Officer Kevin Gillespie, over a disagreement about the death penalty.

Here, a governor, elected by people all across the state, would simply be substituting his or her policy preferences for those of the DA, overriding the very recently expressed will of voters far closer to the ground.

And given that Zeldin and Suozzi base their case on the claim that Bragg is making Manhattan less safe, surely it should matter that homicides and shootings in the borough are both down (11% and 10% respectively) so far this year. Gun prosecutions are up from 95, 145 and 216 through May the past three years to 265 this year.

And contra the “pro-criminal” caricature, Bragg is not radically out of step with his peers. In March, the most recent month for which data is available, 10% of Manhattan defendants whose cases came before were detained pretrial. The equivalent citywide average was 9%.

Bragg is Manhattan’s DA. Barring some major unforeseen rupture, he should remain that until facing voters in 2025.