The mother of a murder victim gave fiery and at times tearing testimony to Democrats Monday morning during a court hearing focused on the crime in Manhattan.
Democrats portrayed the New York City House Committee field hearing as a way for Republicans to fetch water for Trump and said crime-fighting witnesses are being “used” as “props.”
But Madeline Brame, who lost her son in a stabbing attack in 2018, blamed Manhattan da Alvin Bragg for being “soft” on the perpetrators.
Rep. Dan Goldman, whose district includes the Javitz Federal Building where the hearing was held, told Brame: ‘Your experiences are devastating but the problem is that this is a charade to cover up the abuse of power they constantly talk about on the outside. From this hearing about Donald Trump. The purpose of this hearing is to cover up what they know is an improper investigation.
The mother of a murder victim gave Democrats fiery and at times tearful testimony Monday morning during a court hearing focused on the crime in Manhattan.
Madeline Brame, who lost her son in a stabbing attack in 2018 and blames Manhattan da Alvin Bragg for being ‘soft’ on the perpetrators
“Can I answer you, please?” Bram asked.
“I only have 20 seconds now, I’m sorry,” Goldman said.
Bram exclaimed “Don’t insult my intelligence!”
You’re trying to insult me like I don’t know what’s going on. I am fully aware of what is going on here! That’s why I moved away from the Democratic Party farm! ‘
Brame, who also chairs the Victims’ Rights Council, said she doesn’t hear anyone talking about politics or Trump except on the other side, referring to Democrats.
Victims don’t care about anyone’s ideology or political party. nor criminals. They don’t grumble at someone and ask them if they’re Democrat or Republican before they break their heads, or before they shoved them in front of a train, or before they stabbed them to death. to explain.
But Goldman told Republican Anti-Crime Witnesses: “We don’t have jurisdiction to do anything about your concerns.”
“We don’t have jurisdiction to do anything about your concerns,” Rep. Dan Goldman told Witnesses for Republicans Against Crime.
Goldman points to an anti-Semitic poster outside the hearing attacking billionaire George Soros, who has donated heavily to Alvin Bragg’s DA campaign
Barami’s son, Hassun Correa, 35, a father of three and an army veteran, was assaulted by a group of people he did not know and stabbed to death during an altercation outside an apartment building.
Two of Correa’s attackers struck a deal with Manhattan prosecutors, and one was let go on time — Mary Saunders pleaded guilty to assault with a shoe and was sentenced to a year in prison. Travis Stewart pleaded guilty to attempted gang assault and was sentenced to seven years in prison due to a prior criminal record.
The man who stabbed Correa was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“If you take a life, you live,” Brame said, arguing that even stabbing was not properly judged. “There should be no plea bargains for murder.”
“They treated us like trash,” Bram said of Bragg’s office, adding that the office had not told her it would offer plea deals on people involved in the murder.
Democratic witnesses and panelists note that crime in New York occurs at lower rates than in other cities—some cited a recent study that found New York City to be the fifth safest city in America.
To that end, Brame said, “We don’t care… about your statistics. You can’t persuade us not to believe our eyes lying in your numbers because we see them with our own eyes day in and day out.”
Hasson Corea, a U.S. Army veteran, was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018 and two of his attackers obtained plea bargains with a light ruling 10993537
But Chief Jim Jordan focused on Prague’s “Day One” memo where he said he would not prosecute certain lower-level crimes that did not affect public safety.
These included “marijuana, fare evasion, some cases of trespassing, driving with one or two license suspensions, non-criminal offenses such as traffic violations, resisting arrest for any non-criminal offense, prostitution, and obstruction of government administration.”
With regard to burglaries, the memo asked assistant district attorneys to make a logical difference between two very different types of cases: someone who holds a knife to someone’s neck, and someone who typically has substance abuse or mental health issues, shoplifting and poses little threat to the store employee during leaving.
Crime rose in New York City in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic (before Bragg took office) after a mostly decade-long downward trend. Major crimes are up about 22 percent in 2022 – with Bragg taking office on the first day of that year.
New York recorded 438 murders in 2022 — up from 319 in 2019 before the pandemic.
From April 2022 to April 2023, major crimes remained roughly the same, although murders, shootings, and robberies decreased.
The city is even safer in 2022 than it was during a dangerous period in the 1980s and 1990s — murders and robberies are down 80 percent in 2022 compared to 1990, and rapes are down 50 percent.
From the start of 2022 when he took office until November of this year, Bragg has downgraded 52 percent of felonies to misdemeanors. When he does file a case, his office wins a conviction only 51% of the time—a low number compared to the attorney general’s office in recent years.
