Manhattan DA Drops Murder Charge Against Jose Alba. It Never Should Have Been Filed.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has dropped a murder charge against a bodega worker who stabbed a customer during a highly publicized altercation that reinvigorated a debate around self-defense and victimization.

Bragg acknowledged in Manhattan Criminal Court that his office could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the 61-year-old clerk, Jose Alba, “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”

Around 11 p.m. on July 1, Austin Simon, 35, entered the store shouting profanities at Alba after Simon’s girlfriend’s payment was declined for a bag of chips. Simon then came behind the cashier’s counter, shoved Alba, hovered over him, and appeared to try to forcibly remove him from behind the cash wrap. Alba subsequently grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon, ultimately killing him.

Additional surveillance footage shows Simon’s girlfriend telling Alba that Simon was about to come in and “fuck [him] up.” And while the fight was ongoing, she can be seen stabbing Alba—although no charges have been filed against her, including for unlawful possession of a weapon.

Bragg has certainly done the right thing by dismissing the charge against Alba. But the decision to pursue one at all runs contrary to the beliefs of the self-styled progressive prosecutor, who claims to understand that, so often, the process is the punishment.

Nothing demonstrates that amnesia better than a meeting he had last week with the United Bodegas of America, during which he reportedly said he wasn’t sure “why people [were] jumping to conclusions” about his decision to pursue Alba for murder. I would argue that’s because Bragg’s office sent the 61-year-old to Rikers Island, originally sought a $500,000 bond to keep him there, an