President Milkshake
20th April 2024
After the first day of his show trial, Donald Trump cheered himself up by taking a trip uptown to a Harlem bodega. The Sanaa Convenient Store, on Broadway at 139th Street, was the site of a notorious robbery in 2022, during which the 61-year old clerk—while being beaten up by an angry patron—stabbed and killed his assailant. Jose Alba, the clerk, was hailed as a hero by most New Yorkers, except the one who decided to arrest and charge him with murder: District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the same man currently prosecuting Trump for allegedly falsifying business records.
Though Bragg—ever amenable to pressure—dropped the charges against Alba, the case resonated as an example of the anarcho-tyranny that governs many large American cities . Crime in Manhattan, according to Bragg and his champions, is “down,” but the lived experience of the average subway rider or shopper or pedestrian says otherwise. There may be fewer arrests, but public safety remains dicey.