Congratulations, New York Democrats: You have yet more blood on your hands.
Charles Brito, a serial shoplifter with a mile-long rap sheet, was mid-steal at a Midtown CVS when worker Scotty Enoe intervened.
The would-be robber attacked and the retail employee fought back, allegedly stabbing his attacker — who died in the hospital.
This is the fruit of progressives’ years-long “justice reform” effort: two more lives destroyed.
They’ve obliterated the ability of judges to set bail, even for truly dangerous defendants.
With “Less Is More,” they’ve given paroled crooks a free pass to stay on the streets.
Prosecutors can no longer do their jobs, thanks to insane discovery requirements.
And in the city, limits on qualified immunity have hamstrung cops with the threat of lawsuits.
And progressives also elected Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who’s dedicated to keeping the accused out of jail (unless their “crime” is confronting a criminal).
The Legislature refused this year to pass bills to ensure tougher consequences for serial shoplifting and violent behavior toward retail workers (though it did manage to pass another “reform,” the Clean Slate Act, to auto-seal and auto-wipe criminals’ records).
So serial shoplifting — often by mentally ill homeless — is now endemic.
Indeed, Brito got busted days earlier on yet more shoplifting charges and was set to be sentenced next week.
That’s why ordinary working folk find themselves plunged into danger simply when they show up to their jobs, and people suffering from mental illness escalate their bad behavior free of restraint until a tragedy happens.
As a worker in a nearby store cried out, “Sometimes there are times where people want to be extra obnoxious and they want to do it anyways in front of our faces. So it’s like, what can we do?”
And as Enoe’s mother put it: “He acted in self-defense. He did what he had to do.”
Expect ever more of these terrible faceoffs that can destroy the lives of everyone involved.
After all, this is at least the third such situation in as many months: May saw Daniel Penny put deranged vagrant Jordan Neely in a neckhold after Neely threatened a subway car full of passengers, leading to Neely’s death.
In June, Jordan Williams killed an ex-con attacking him and his girlfriend on the J train.
Adding to the chaos is the madness of the system’s response: Enoe now faces a murder charge.
Yep: In the upside-down world of lefty morality, Enoe (like Penny) is the guilty party.
The message is clear: Sit still and take it, law-abiding New Yorkers. If you lift a finger, the hammer comes down.
Progressives in the Big Apple never shut up about their love for workers.
But their policies show it’s the criminal class that holds pride of place in their hearts.
Their hypocrisy is as deadly as it is disgusting.
