Former President Donald Trump promised to “straighten New York out” during a post-court visit to the Manhattan bodega where a shop clerk famously stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense two years ago.
At the time, people were outraged when Jose Alba was first accused of murder by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Now, the same district attorney is prosecuting the presumptive Republican nominee for hush money he allegedly gave to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Due to his Lower Manhattan trial, Trump will spend most of his days confined to the courtroom, which will severely restrict his mobility and his capacity to speak at rallies and collect money. On Wednesdays, the only weekday when court is not meant to be in session, as well as weekends, his aides have been organizing demonstrations and other political events. However, part of the former president’s plan also entails making daily after-court appearances in New York.
Despite the Empire State’s Democratic majority, the former president’s appearance in Harlem confirms his commitment to make strides in his native state – which Biden won with almost 60% of the vote in 2020. Trump maintains that he can win New York in November and has entertained the idea of having rallies in the previous president’s birthplaces of Queens and the South Bronx as well as Madison Square Garden.
“You should be allowed to have a gun. If you had a gun, you’d never get robbed (…) that would be the end of it,” Trump told the bodega workers at the Sanaa Convenient Store, previously the Blue Moon Convenient Store, in Harlem – where the former president was welcomed by Francisco Marte, a supporter of small businesses, and Maad Ahmed, the co-owner of the establishment.
Rich Cardinale, Alba’s lawyer, however, cautioned Trump that workers may find themselves in the same predicament that his client was in during the 2022 incident.
Alba was imprisoned for over a week after being charged with second-degree murder, until Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office prosecutors decided to reduce his $250,000 bail. After a while, the district attorney’s office decided to withdraw the prosecution altogether, claiming there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Alba “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.” However, the worker was so terrified that he returned to the Dominican Republic.
Trump claimed that enabling the NYPD to “do their jobs” would be the main way to make bodegas safer when questioned about the matter by a reporter for the New York Post
“Every week they’re being robbed two or three times, it’s crazy. You know what? The police can stop it but they have to be allowed to do their job,” he said, according to the Post. “You have to stop crime and we’re going to let the police do their job. They have to be given back their authority. We’re making a big play New York. I love this city and it’s gotten so bad in the last three years, four years, and we’re going to straighten New York out.”
Prior to his arrival, Trump’s team sent media documents that attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s handling of the stabbing case. These materials included information on Alba’s weeks-long incarceration at Rikers Island without the ability to post bail. In charge of the Trump prosecution office is Bragg.
“Alvin Bragg does nothing, he goes after guys like Trump who did nothing wrong. Violent killers and murderers (…) There are hundreds of murderers all over the city, they know who they are, and they don’t pick them up. They go after Trump”.
Despite Trump’s statements, FBI data indicates that violent crime in the United States as a whole significantly decreased in 2023 following pandemic-era rises that started in 2020, the year Trump became office. New York City has likewise seen a decrease in crime.
