New York Democrats raged over House Judiciary Committee Republicans announcing Monday that they had scheduled an official committee hearing next week in New York City focused on “victims of violent crime in Manhattan.”
The committee’s hearing notice specifically named Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose investigation of former President Donald Trump led to a historic indictment of the former president at the end of last month.
The hearing, according to the notice, “will examine how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s pro-crime, anti-victim policies have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents.”
A Bragg spokesperson blasted the hearing as a “political stunt” that would not “engage in actual efforts to increase public safety, such as supporting national gun legislation and shutting down the iron pipeline.”
The spokesperson also touted that some types of violent crime in Manhattan have improved since Bragg took office.
https://t.co/kQIlFMsC6X pic.twitter.com/YNq0I2bjas
— Alvin Bragg (@ManhattanDA) April 10, 2023
While the latest police statistics for south Manhattan show three murders this year versus ten this time last year, north Manhattan has seen 17 murders this year versus 12 last year.
New York City as a whole continues to see dismal rates of violent crime, despite small improvements over last year in some areas:
(screenshot/New York Police Department)
The committee’s hearing will take place against a backdrop of Republicans widely accusing Bragg of pursuing charges against Trump for political rather than sincere purposes while being “soft on crime” in other areas.
Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who represents a swath of Manhattan, shared Bragg’s statement alongside his own condemnation of committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
“New Yorkers don’t need to take public safety advice from Jim Jordan, whose ‘tough on crime’ solution is to defund the DOJ and FBI,” Nadler wrote.
The hearing is set to take place just down the road from Nadler at the Javits Federal Building, which is situated in Rep. Dan Goldman’s (D-NY) section of Manhattan. Although Goldman is not a member of the Judiciary Committee, he still denounced Jordan’s decision, according to a statement from Goldman shared on social media by his spokesman.
Goldman said Jordan is “not welcome” in his district and claimed without evidence that Jordan scheduled the hearing “at the behest of Donald Trump.”
“If Jordan truly cared about public safety, he’d be having a field hearing in Nashville, Tennessee or Louisville, Kentucky, where the most recent of the daily mass shootings have killed more innocent Americans,” Goldman said.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a “Squad” member who also represents a deeply blue district of New York, seethed that Jordan was partaking in “political theater.”
“Do your job serving Ohio’s 4th district and address the issues Americans care about,” Bowman said. “Your intimidation won’t work. Your political theater here is another embarrassing example of the GOP’s poor governance and obsession with fascism and the disgraced former president.”
The hearing marks the second official field gathering for the committee after Republicans visited Yuma, Arizona, in February to highlight the southern border crisis. Democrats refused to attend that hearing but have not made their plans for the New York hearing known as of the time of this publishing.
Nadler’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Breitbart News on the matter.
The hearing is scheduled for April 17 at 9:00 a.m. local time.
Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
