The Left Is Doing Its Best To Make Self-Defense A Crime

The same left-wing prosecutors who let rioting run rampant and let repeat offenders out on low bail also want to make it difficult for you to defend yourself.

We don’t yet know all the details about an apparent fatal stabbing of an agitated man by bodega clerk Jose Alba in New York City last week, but we do know that the clerk was quickly charged with murder and initially held at Rikers Island on $250,000 bail while video surveillance seems to indicate he likely acted in self-defense. Surveillance videos show the unnamed girlfriend of Austin Simon, the man Alba killed who had a history of felony arrests and was out on parole, becoming upset with Alba when her card was declined and threatening to “bring my n– down here and he gonna f-ck you up.”

Another video shows Simon walking behind the counter to Alba, shoving him, and getting in his face before Alba stood up and appeared to try to walk past Simon, at which point the two wrestled until Alba eventually stabbed the other man. “I don’t want a problem,” Alba told Simon when he walked in, according to the New York Post. Further footage appears to show the girlfriend pulling out a knife of her own and slashing Alba, although she has not been charged.

After outrage over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to charge Alba, who has no prior criminal record, with murder, and his pursuit of such a high bail while Alba languished at Rikers, the bail amount was reduced — but the charges have so far not been dropped. In the meantime, GoFundMe deleted a fundraising page for Alba’s defense, in a move that has become common for the platform when its leaders don’t agree with a cause.

A fearless citizen with the will and means to defend himself is a threat to left-wing bureaucrats who want to boss him around — like they did when they knocked on doors sniffing out “unauthorized” religious services and gatherings during Covid lockdowns, or when they allowed lawless riots to hold cities hostage during the summer of 2020. Bragg’s decision to crack down on what appears to at least potentially be a strong case of self-defense may not have been an intentional ploy to criminalize self-protective autonomy, but it does follow a long string of actions and attitudes on the left that are hostile to the idea of a law-abiding citizen using a lethal weapon to protect himself and his property.

Elected last year, Bragg began his term by directing prosecutors under him to seek prison time only for “the most serious offenses — including murder, sexual assault and economic crimes involving vast sums of money — unless the law requires them to do otherwise,” according to The New York Times. He also directed them not to seek jail sentences for “certain robberies and assaults,” and to rarely “request prison sentences of more than 20 years.” Unsurprisingly, NYC crime rates have continued to rise.

Keep in mind, this is in the same state that just went to the Supreme Court over its desire to prevent regular citizens from being able to protect themselves from those crimes with a concealed handgun. After the Supreme Court found New York’s restrictive rules unconstitutional, the state rushed to pass a new law that severely limits where legal handguns may be carried and requires permit applicants to provide their social media accounts for review.

And never, ever forget the madness that descended on then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse after he shot three men in self-defense during a night of violent rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was smeared as a “white supremacist” by President Joe Biden and as a murderer by the corrupt press, and dragged through a weeks-long trial and more than a year of hateful slander before being found not guilty on all counts by reason of self-defense.

Power-hungry prosecutors and politicians who protect crimes and riotous behavior while targeting law-abiding citizens’ freedom to defend themselves don’t do so accidentally. They want Americans to be intimidated and dependent on them, and they don’t shy away from abusing the criminal justice system to achieve those ends. If that turns out to be the case with Jose Alba, you shouldn’t be surprised.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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