Bragg’s Double Standards Persecutes Trump – but drops all charges against . . . guess who? by Joseph Klein
https://www.frontpagemag.com/braggs-double-standards/
Left-wing progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decided to drop all charges against thirty-one of the forty-six pro-Hamas agitators who were arrested after breaking into and seizing Hamilton Hall at Columbia University’s campus on April 30th. Fourteen of the remaining agitators still facing charges were offered “Adjournments in Contemplation of Dismissal,” which would have resulted in dismissal of their cases if they did not engage in additional criminal conduct during the next six months. They refused the offer. The fifteenth defendant is James Carlson, a forty-year-old privileged scion of a wealthy family who is considered a “possible leader” of the Columbia University rioters who broke into Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside. He has been charged with criminal trespassing, on top of additional charges for other crimes he allegedly committed.
The thirty-one rioters who invaded Hamilton Hall and got off scot-free were initially charged with trespassing in the third degree, which is a misdemeanor. They would have received no jail time in any event with let-the criminals-go District Attorney Bragg still in office. But even a slap on the wrist for the rioters was too much for Bragg to consider.
One of DA Bragg’s prosecutors cited a lack of evidence as justification for the decision to drop the charges against the thirty-one pro-Hamas rioters. He claimed there was no proof sufficient to tie each specific hooligan who was arrested to illegally taking part in the invasion of Hamilton Hall and in the destruction of property or injury of anyone during the course of the building’s seizure and occupation. The prosecutor blamed the problem in part on the absence of security-camera video, thus rewarding the rioters who had disabled or covered the cameras in the first place while wearing masks to hide their identities.
Judge Kevin McGrath went along with the charade by announcing in court that “All these matters are dismissed and sealed in the interest of justice.”
Judge McGrath has it backwards. Dismissing even the mildest of charges against the pro-Hamas thugs is a gross miscarriage of justice. But what else can we expect from DA Bragg’s office, backed up by cooperative criminal judges?
When serious crimes that harm the public are involved, Bragg just shrugs his shoulders. He either downgrades them to misdemeanors or, as in the case of thirty-one of the pro-Hamas agitators who broke into Hamilton Hall, drops the charges altogether.
The thugs whom DA Bragg let off the hook should have been charged with committing felonies and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But Mr. Bragg was too busy instead going after Donald Trump with thirty-four jerry-rigged felony charges. Bragg brought back to life a time-barred misdemeanor of falsifying internal business records by upgrading it to a felony involving alleged interference with a federal election. With the help of a highly biased judge, prosecutors working for the Trump-hating district attorney convinced a jury to convict Mr. Trump, even though the public was not harmed by the alleged falsification of any internal Trump business records.
District Attorney Bragg claimed after the verdict against Mr. Trump was announced that nobody is above the law. But he has applied a double standard. He twisted the law just to get Trump, as he had promised to do during his campaign. However, Bragg refused to do the right thing by prosecuting all the pro-Hamas agitators who broke into Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside.
In order to understand what Bragg could have charged all these pro-Hamas agitators with but didn’t, it is necessary to get into the weeds a bit on the applicable law.
In New York, burglary in the third degree is a Class D felony if it involves entering or remaining unlawfully in a building with the intent to commit a crime. Burglary in the second degree becomes a Class C felony when it causes physical injury to any person who is not a participant in the crime.
A person is guilty of committing a criminal mischief felony when with intent to damage another person’s property, with no right to do so, that individual damages another person’s property in an amount exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars.
The pro-Hamas agitators who broke into Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside the building did so with the intent to cause extensive property damage in the process – i.e., a criminal mischief felony that rises to the level of a burglary felony as well. This was not simply a spontaneous, spur of the moment demonstration. The break-in was highly organized, involving extensive planning and coordination.
Photos shared exclusively with Gothamist reveal the intruders’ “hand-drawn schematics mapping out entire floors of the building, locations of supplies, doors they wanted to barricade, and the locations of water fountains and fire extinguishers.” There was also a “task list.”
Moreover, the pro-Hamas invaders unlawfully prevented at least one staff member from exiting the building before finally letting him go. He filed a university accident report “showing a raw wound on his knuckles and stating he had bruises on his neck,” according to the New York Times article describing the incident. “It also stated that he had been ‘assaulted and battered, and wrongfully imprisoned.’” This would constitute an even more serious Class C felony.
By putting all these thugs’ criminal acts together in one neat package, District Attorney Bragg would have had substantial grounds to charge them with the felonies of burglary and criminal mischief. And to put the bow on the package, Bragg could have brought conspiracy charges against all those involved in breaking into and occupying Hamilton Hall, whether their individual identities were concealed or not.
A person is guilty of conspiracy in New York “when, with intent that conduct constituting a crime be performed,” that individual “agrees with one or more persons to engage in or cause the performance of such conduct.” An overt act must be “alleged and proved to have been committed by one of the conspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
Breaking into, entering, and occupying Hamilton Hall caused extensive property damage. Each of the intruders, by taking part, must have known that such property damage would occur and thereby demonstrated the intent that conduct constituting criminal trespass, criminal mischief, and burglary would be performed. The planning and coordination of the break-in and the barricading inside Hamilton Hall demonstrate that the intruders agreed to collectively engage in such conduct. And there is plenty of evidence of overt acts committed in furtherance of the conspiracy, including by the possible leader of the break-in and occupation, James Carlson.
There is no excuse for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to decline prosecuting the thirty-one pro-Hamas rioters who invaded Hamilton Hall on any charges whatsoever. All the rioters arrested for taking part in this criminal intrusion should stand trial for conspiracy to commit criminal trespass, criminal mischief, and burglary. But DA Bragg will not do so because his priority is to punish Donald Trump, not to enforce the law fairly and even-handedly.
Alvin Bragg has gotten away for too long with politicizing his office and failing to perform his duty to protect the people of Manhattan from violent crime. Governor Kathy Hochul should have already used her power to remove Bragg from office, but she is too afraid of the backlash from the Democratic Party’s left-wing progressive base to do so.
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