Old: If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.
New: If you can’t do the time, Alvin Bragg will be there for you.
That much just became clear, as the newly minted Manhattan DA issued marching orders to his hundreds of assistants and support staff.
“Let’s do our very best to keep people out of jail, kids. And let’s really, really not sweat the small stuff.”
OK, Bragg didn’t actually say that — but it pretty faithfully paraphrases the guts of a staff memo Bragg issued Monday, the first business day of his four-year term.
Specifically, Bragg says his office “will not seek a carceral sentence” for anything short of murder or deadly assault (“carceral” being progressive double-speak for prison). Also, he says minor crime won’t be prosecuted at all.
In other words, jail is to be reserved for ax murderers and their ilk; armed robbers and heavyweight drug dealers are to be minimally inconvenienced — and just forget about the quality-of-life law enforcement that was the beating heart of the Giuliani-era rescue of New York City decades ago.