Voters are fickle lovers. In a moment they are enchanted by an idea and court the most attractive politician in tune with this new yearning, but this does not guarantee the elected one a honeymoon. Manhattan’s new attorney, Alvin Bragg, has barely taken office when he discovers that keeping campaign promises can be the shortcut to shortening his political career.
Bragg, who took office on the 1st, is the first black person to be elected to the post of Chief Justice of the island of New York – a post of high visibility. He inherited the criminal investigation of the Trumps’ companies, the first family that not only held the White House but did business with “famiglias” of the New York mafia.
Last week, the prosecutor took the first shot from the newly sworn in New York government. The new commander of the NYPD, city police, Keechant Sewell, the first woman in charge, sent an email to the city’s 36,000 agents sharply criticizing a memo by Bragg in which he urged the team of prosecutors to avoid prison sentences unless for serious crimes, and indictments for light crimes — like that of a homeless person who steals something to eat.
It was this promise that elected Bragg and other public prosecutors united by the banner of reforming America’s evil judicial system. The country has the largest prison population in the world (2.1 million people), excessive sentences for misdemeanors for defendants with good records, and a prison system often used to punish mental illness and poverty.
After nearly three decades of decline, crime rose again in large American cities in 2020, the same year in which outrage erupted over the death of the black man George Floyd, murdered by a white police officer.
As the pandemic and crime progressed through 2021, the appetite for progressive policing waned. New mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, has defeated rivals with more administrative experience by posing as a tough guy and, as a black man who was beaten by the police as a young man, as a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Eric Adams is known for his devotion to the legend of Eric Adams. It is known that he chose Commander Sewell (there were other female candidates) after testing his wit in front of the cameras. And it’s hard to imagine that the NYPD commander would threaten to open a war with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office without first consulting her boss.
The disagreement between Alvin Bragg and Keechant Sewell soon leaked out and swept the new mayor’s botched debut from the headlines. His ads about public health, education and the pandemic have a verbiage that evokes another famous mayor. New York is not the fictional Sucupira, but when I hear Adams speaking offhand, I am reminded of the scene of Odorico Paraguaçu (Paulo Gracindo) speaking in front of the UN: “With me, it’s bread, bread, cheese, cheese” (with me it’s bread, bread, cheese, cheese).
Vegan, muscular Adams resembles an Odorico who took a McKinsey consulting bath.
The Manhattan prosecutor also faces artillery from the New York media. Any sign of crime-fighting weakness attracts massive attention, and Bragg at the moment looks like an easy target for clickbait headlines. He uses strong arguments but, although New York is not the microcosm of a country, like Dias Gomes’ Sucupira, he has not completely eliminated the coronelista impulse in politics.
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