In the wake of the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision, New York politicians want the world to think that their constituents don’t care about self defense. Doing things like carrying a gun for your own safety, they said, puts everyone at greater risk rather than helping to reduce crime.
These so-called leaders want us to think that New Yorkers embrace more of a European or British model of self-defense, where no one is justified in using deadly force, even when attacked, no matter the location or the circumstances. But, a recent case of self-defense that resulted in the defender being arrested on a charge of murder shines a light on this.
After his arrest, bodega clerk Jose Alba was charged with murder for stabbing and killing a younger, stronger, and bigger man who had attacked him behind the store’s counter. The attack was captured on video.
Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has been under intense pressure from across the ideological spectrum to drop charges against Alba who was finally released from jail after his bail was reduced to $50,000 (DA Bragg had asked for an astronomical $500,000 bail or bond).
Not only bodega workers, but average New Yorkers are angry that a man who acted in a clear case self defense had to spend days at Riker’s and will now face a murder trial.
Negative publicity over this arrest is so strong that even the “Biden of Brooklyn“, Mayor Eric Adams is now standing up for Alba.
“This is the same message that I’ve been stating over and over again: That hard working New Yorkers, and Americans to be honest with you, should not be attacked in their place of work,” Adams said in an interview on WABC Radio.
Don’t expect any better treatment of lawful gun owners by New York prosecutors who act in self defense once more firearm licenses are issued in the post-Bruen environment. The city and state have openly defied the Court since losing their ability to deny people the right of armed self-defense if they don’t show “good cause.” We can expect the defenders in cases involving firearms to be vigorously prosecuted — justified or not — in an attempt to use the process as punishment for exercising the right to keep and bear arms.
Whether they’re innocent or not, armed New Yorkers who defend themselves will spend time in jail, pay high legal fees, go without work, and face all of the life disruptions that comes from a felony prosecution.
That, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t some light at the end of the tunnel.
The support for bodega clerk Alba by outraged New Yorkers shows a large portion of the population clearly supports the right of self defense and are thus not completely unreachable. Similar situations of law-abiding people defending themselves from violent attacks — using firearms — will get the same support from the average Joe who’s sick of rampant crime in the city. The more that happens, the more it will show that change in New York’s treatment of those who exercise the right of self defense is possible.
