Most of us would agree that even criminals deserve a second chance.
But what about 134 chances?
Apparently, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin “Set ‘Em Free” Bragg is all-in on such a revolving-door approach to justice.
Or maybe Bragg just hasn’t found a criminal he believes is worth prosecuting at all.
So it was not surprising, though nonetheless disturbing, to discover in The Post that the infamously woke prosecutor has allowed career criminal Harold Gooding to continue to wreak havoc as he pillages and plunders the businesses of our city, despite racking up an astonishing record of 134 arrests.
The fact that Bragg was warned about Gooding three years ago — when the serial thief’s face was plastered on the front page of The Post as “Recidivist No. 1,” topping the New York Police Department’s worst-of-the-worst repeat-offenders list — makes the DA’s gross negligence even more outrageous.
Gooding’s case is emblematic of the failures of Bragg’s radical “decarceration” policies, which are harming New Yorkers, forcing businesses to close and destroying our quality of life.
While Bragg claims his office is “addressing the root causes of crime” by giving career criminals get-out-of-jail-free diversion programs, he’s really just perverting the criminal justice system.
Bragg has invited more crime in New York City by essentially “lowering the transactional cost of crime,” a term coined by Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael Mangual.
Criminals have no fear of being caught in Manhattan, because even if they’re arrested, they face little or no consequences.
To paraphrase one NYPD officer, “The juice is always worth the squeeze.”
Gooding is far from the only repeat offender to roam scot-free under Bragg’s watch. He’s just the latest.
On Day 1, Bragg proudly announced he wouldn’t be prosecuting a slew of low-level offenses, like theft or fare evasion. It’s no coincidence turnstile jumping, shoplifting and organized retail theft have been rampant ever since.
As a result, hundreds of businesses across Manhattan have locked their goods behind Plexiglas, while dozens of others have shuttered completely.
Bragg’s record as the borough’s top prosecutor has been even more abysmal: Since he took office, convictions by the Manhattan DA have plummeted, from 68% to 51% for felonies and from 51% to 29% for misdemeanors.
Meanwhile, dismissals and downgrades (dropping charges from felonies to misdemeanors) have skyrocketed.
According to the latest stats, in 2023 an astounding 62% of all cases brought to Bragg’s office were dismissed altogether, while more than half of felony cases were downgraded to misdemeanors.
That seems to be exactly what happened in Gooding’s most recent prosecution.
In June 2024, he was charged with grand larceny in the fourth degree, among other charges, for shoplifting nearly a dozen times.
Fourth-degree grand larceny is a class “E” felony punishable by up to four years in prison, yet Bragg let Gooding plead to misdemeanor petit larceny and serve less than eight months in Rikers.
New York, like many other states, has “three strike” laws that increase penalties for so-called persistent offenders who are convicted of certain felony offenses up to three times.
Similar state laws address repeat drunk-driving offenders, but there are no such laws for those who persistently commit misdemeanors.
That’s what makes prosecutors driven by radical ideology so dangerous: Rather than enforcing the law, they choose which laws to enforce.
There is absolutely no plausible reason a lifelong lawbreaker with 134 previous arrests should receive a sweetheart misdemeanor deal, except that Alvin Bragg simply does not believe in holding certain criminals accountable.
District attorneys are not social workers.
District attorneys are not activists; they are not reformers.
The first and foremost duty of a district attorney, as conferred by the Consolidated Laws of the State of New York, is to “prosecute all crimes and offenses cognizable by the courts of the county for which he shall have been elected.”
And in that duty, Alvin Bragg has utterly failed the people of New York City.
Joann Ariola is the minority leader of the New York City Council. Maud Maron is a former public defender and the Republican candidate for Manhattan District Attorney.
