Treatment of New York Bodega Clerk Shows What New York Will Do to People Who Defend Themselves With Guns

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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.

63 COMMENTS

  1. The bodgea worker was completely correct in his actions of self-defense. The one who should be behind bars is DA Alvin Bragg.

    WTF is wrong with this DA? Its basically legal text book self defense.

      • Correct; the Open Societies Foundation (Soros) dropped 1 million on this race. Their (his) motivation seems to be to disrupt the country at the local level, but is San Fransico could recall their progressive Soros DA, it gives me at least some hope that same can happen in places like Austin (where an Uber driver; a US military vet and concealed carry holder) has been charged with murder for shooting a “mostly peaceful protester” for pointing an AK at his face.

    • The bodega worker was not a felon in possession, or he would have gotten a get out of jail free card. See, they are shifting the jail populations, locking up the law abiding and letting the bad guys walk the streets.

      • Worked in Argentina, Venezuela and various former Soviet satellite states so why not use old efficient tricks to destabilize a society to assist in rebuilding it as desired?

    • I’ll tell you what is wrong. A large portion of the populace are becoming criminals or criminal sympathetic. This portion votes, and is a voting base. So as a result, criminal sympathetic candidates are getting elected by the left.

    • Expect a *lot* more of that crap when the good people of NYC start carrying.

      I hope NYC concealed carriers start to organize among themselves because Leftist Scum ™ prosecutors are going to be looking to “Make an example out of” a carrier defending their life… 🙁

      • Honestly if they push too hard they may get the Republican candidate elected by default especially with his LT governor running mate. Turns out bail reform is getting steadily less popular.

    • Notice how this was over a non-working EBT card?

      Man, I hate to say it, but the folks saying that things get explosive when EBT goes down are very likely not wrong.

  2. “That, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t some light at the end of the tunnel.”

    In NYC, the light at the end of the tunnel is NJ.

  3. Let me guess, my boy was a good boy he was just defending his girlfriend. That man didn’t have to stab my baby! He could have just let them stab him and have the chips. Good riddance if he hadn’t decided to be a bully and intimidate an old man his punk ass would still be alive

    • I wonder if he was trying to impress his girlfriend and wanted to intimidate the clerk to give her free chips and take a small beating ?
      I hate to say it but I have encountered females that respond to those behaviors.
      The clerk ‘s body language was accommodating or even timid. Punks get agressive when they see that. What priors did the dead guy have? My guess many minor.

  4. If the cops on scene had an ounce of integrity they would not have arrested the clerk and quit the job if necessary.

  5. Guess you’ll just have to overwhelm them with defensive shootings! That’s one of their favorite tactics!

    • They’ll just decline to prosecute more criminals so they can focus their resources on law abiding citizens who commit justified acts of self defense.

  6. Okay. The people of NYC then need to vote accordingly. If they don’t, well, they have collectively made their choice knowing full well what they’re getting

  7. “…face all of the life disruptions…” Death is a pretty significant life disruption.

  8. This is exactly why a good CCW insurance policy is – unfortunately – necessary in today’s political environment. Here in Los Angeles, we have D.A. Gascon, a Soros-funded uber Leftist who files charges against the good guys, and is lenient on bad guys, just like NYC’s D.A. Bragg.

    We live in clown world.

        • look at the comment box. Just below it you see a check the box space that says “Save my name, email and website in this browser…” If you check the box, lo and behold, you can edit and save edits in your comment.

        • Oh that, yeah I knew that was there. I thought you were talking about something different. Thanks Mark

    • “This is exactly why a good CCW insurance policy is – unfortunately – necessary in today’s political environment.”

      I fully expect the carry insurance companies are going to be selling a ton of policies in places like NYC.

      But I have to wonder – How long will they continue to offer carry insurance if it becomes clear Soros-bought DAs will go out of their way to harass the carriers?

      • Policies will be sold but good luck affording the premiums. Similar to how having uninsured (illegal immigrants and other criminals) covered if they cause you damage/injuries can be way more expensive in some areas.

        • Need to double check as I haven’t kept up on this topic lately but all of them or the ones that prepay your defense vs reimburse after not guilty?

        • “New York prohibits personal CCW insurance except for law enforcement.”

          Get the ball rolling on challenging that in court. Interfering with the practice of a civil right, perhaps?

        • @Geoff

          “Interfering with the practice of a civil right, perhaps?”

          Hmmmm… no, not exactly. Its because insurance law in New York and a couple of other states don’t allow this because its not considered the ‘traditional’ insurance available to the general public but rather, in some of those states, ‘special purpose optional’ insurance such as the special purpose of being in law enforcement and some states don’t allow it at all.

          I said this wrong, although its prohibited in New York in the past it is now available in New York to the general public by one company named ‘Armed Citizens LDN’ (who now also makes it available in all 50 states as well even those where it was previously prohibited).

          One can compared the best ones to have here > https://www.concealedcarry.com/self-defense-gun-owner-insurance-programs-compared/ >>>> in that table scroll down a little and look at the “Available Nationwide?” row, and you can see where its available or not available.

        • Also note, some of these companies coverage include unique ‘might be handy to have’ things like, for example, ‘Red Flag Law Coverage’ and ‘Post-Incident Firearm Confiscation’ and ‘Psychological Support’.

  9. On a technical note I was told that upward thrusts with a knife below rib cage are typically combat ending strikes.
    Maybe the clerk was once trained as such and remembered. I would like to see more of the video. Here I saw the push and fall down then there’s a screen grab of large knife held low.

    • Thrusting into the heart is easiest – using a double-edged knife, blade held horizontally, aiming to the left of the sternum.

      But it can be done as you describe.

    • On a more technical and gorier point, the Aztecs used to lean their sacrifices over backwards on the altar. The priest, using an obsidian knife (very sharp), would make a horizontal cut just below the rib cage, exposing the bottom of the heart. He would then reach inside the chest cavity and cut the main artery and vein at the top of the heart, allowing him to remove the still beating heart from the body. After offering it to the gods, it would be burned on an altar, and the body of the newly deceased tossed down the steps. According to a modern surgeon, the process of removing the intact heart took less than 30 seconds.

    • Depends on the blade, situation and the training of the person in question. Those kinda come together in terms of what the blade does once it’s in the person.

      There are quite a few ways to end a knife fight quickly. Most of “choosing” which has to do with the doctrine in which the person came up (assuming they have some training with a knife) and the exact situation.

      Untrained people tend to try to lock in a grip (like, say, a fistful of shirt) and then go with repeated forward/upward thrusts while moving forward because it’s so natural to do a walk-n-poke once you have that grip. If you’re on the receiving end of that kind of attack it’s damned hard to stop if you’re not prepared to do so. If you are prepared, even then it’s not easy or fun. [Enter the eternal argument over trapping the knife.]

      Not as hard as someone who was trained along the lines of, say, the British military in using an FS knife where you basically pull the person on to the blade, but still damned hard.

      Knives are shit your pants scary unless you’re a full blown paint-chips-for-breakfast type. Anyone who tells you knives aren’t terrifying almost certainly has never faced one.

      0/10 do not recommend.

      Old guy picked a good weapon for his situation though. Blades are nasty within their limited effective range and once you’re in that box with the guy the advantage is all his, especially if you don’t yet know he has the knife.

      • Only a fool looks down at a knife and thinks they won’t get cut/stabbed. Even someone with a box cutter/utility knife, can seriously slice you up.
        You’re right, it takes some serious training to take on a knife wielder unarmed. Obviously, Home Slice didn’t have serious training and now he’s dead. He pushed the little old dude to the point he defended himself, and now he’s gonna be 7 pounds of ash.

  10. Fear for your life or great bodily harm is textbook justification for the use of deadly force. Evidently not in NYC.

    • Deathwish has gone from a entertaining movie influenced by it’s timeframe to a near documentary/best case scenario lately.

  11. Better to be judged by 12 than have a whole room full of medical professionals trying to put you back together again.

    I’m a senior. I’m not taking a beating at my age.

  12. I hope he sues them for malicious prosecution. If we had a real AG at the federal level this would be a civil rights investigation.

    This goes back to Sullivan Laws and the idea that too many voters of certain pols were getting shot to death.

  13. Not only do you need to fear the criminals in NYC, but now you need to fear protecting yourself from the criminals by using legitimate self defense with anything because if you do the law is coming to get you.

    An old saying comes to mind….the government should fear the people, not the people fear the government.

  14. First I have no idea as to whatbthe original face off was about> All the shop guy got was a mild shove ne was NOT subject to any kind of attack mthat I could see in the video. The suppose attacke even had his hands behind his back at one point and appeared to be engaged in a vocal exchange. Under no circumstance would I call this an ny kind of physical attack with intent he-shoved the guy and then stepped back. Does that warrant a knifing and no doubt if there had been a firearm available a shooting ?.
    To me I think not. Did that entitle me when I was attacked by three idiots, not that much damage except to my dignity was done and they all got Police Records for life.
    But murder? I also think not simply because in the USA at this point such is the level ,of criminality [which by the way arming the citizenry has had absolutely no bloody effect at all -rather the opposite] everybody is on edge. Whilst I do think a crime has been commited there are extenuating circumstances and a manslaughter charge my be more appropriate. AS for being ‘freed’ he has h not he is under investigation .

    On a final point. If the ‘victim’ had been and UNARMED white man i I really do feel the general attitude would be different.

    • @Albert

      “First I have no idea as to whatbthe original face off was about> All the shop guy got was a mild shove ne was NOT subject to any kind of attack mthat I could see in the video.”

      Seriously?

      You didn’t see the younger, stronger, and bigger man purposely walk behind the counter and violently shove with a violent push the much older, weaker, and smaller man so hard that the older man fell back?

      After the older man fell back you didn’t see the younger, stronger, and bigger man (in the very short time of the attack events left in the video) the younger, stronger, and bigger man posture and remaining and prepared to continue?

      Are you serious? That’s a mild shove to you?

      Maybe its not a violent assault to you because you are an idiot.

      A violent assault is a violent assault, especially when the perpetrator intentionally invades upon your space in a manner in which you can not escape and does it with the intent to violently assault you especially when they put you at a position of disadvantage (the older man being intentionally showed in a striking sudden manner that made him fall down) especially when the victim is smaller and older and weaker.

      You didn’t see this right there in the video …. are you serious?

      This bodega worker had reason to fear for his life or to fear serious bodily injury. He could not escape, he is weaker, older, smaller than they intentionally younger, stronger, and bigger man and is in a very serious disadvantage position with the younger, stronger, and bigger man postured to continue his assault.

      Its classic self-defense you idiot.

      As i’ve said before, you do not have the slightest concept of self defense. Of course you, based upon you in a previous post trying desperately to manufacture some parity in experience inadvertently point out that you beat up women to place them in the hospital.

  15. “The city and state have openly defied the Court since losing their ability to deny people the right of armed self-defense…”

    1. This is unsurprising.

    2. Did the city and state really “lose their ability” to deny people? No, clearly they didn’t. They still have, an exercise, that ability. Until a force greater than NYC or NY State exerts control over the City/State the City and State will continue this behavior.

    “How many divisions does the Pope/SCOTUS have?”

    There are basically three options for fixing NY/C. The residents don’t care to exercise any of those, and so, they will continue to get a boot ground into their face. Maybe they’ll complain a bit more, but it seems like the “leadership” in NY like the sound.

  16. Self defense or self preservation is a basic human instinct and a right.

    The victim was in danger, he could not flee from his position and his instinct said to fight. He won that fight and a criminal died. It was not the action of the victim that is at fault, it was the action of the criminal and his woman.

    Had they maturely accepted the EBT was declined, the situation would never had occurred.

    The feeling of entitlement to the fruits of others labor is one reason why society has the issues we see. There are those who want to double down on this mentality.

  17. NYC will be abandoned by honest citizens in the coming decades. Major businesses will be forced to relocate to the lack of honest workers. All because of Democrats.

  18. Okay, I think I get what the point of your headline is, but the fact of the matter is that the bodega owner had to defend himself with a knife, precisely because of NYC’s restrictions on firearms possession.

    But the headline itself sounds a bit off.

  19. Is it also possible that the African American D/A is a racist in that a Hispanic/white male killed an African American male even though it was self defense? After all didn’t this DA also openly support BLM?

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