Like Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Rachael Rollins in Boston, and Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, Manhattan’s new District Attorney Alvin Bragg was elected after campaigning to bring a more progressive approach to the criminal justice system; he also pledged to reduce the population of people held pre-trial on the infamous Rikers Island jail complex. After two months in office, however, supporters are worried that Bragg’s progressive messaging is already giving way to the same brutal system they elected him to change. TRNN Executive Producer Eddie Conway speaks with Olayemi Olurin about Bragg’s first months in office, the ongoing crisis at Rikers, and how “progressive” a District Attorney can be in a broken system designed to protect the wealthy and criminalize the poor.

Olayemi Olurin is a public defender and staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and an analyst at the Law & Crime Network.

Read the transcript of this interview:

Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

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20 thoughts on “How ‘progressive’ can a district attorney actually be?”
  1. Smart , intelligent, beautiful, and a true advocate…. dayum can I have one (lolz). Go on sista, keep up the good Fight… and get in that Good Trouble 🙂

  2. Unfortunately, "progressive" today means siding with communism and fascism and subverting the government. Look at all the DA's who were installed by Soros, whose goal is the destruction of America. Kim Foxx in Chicago who didn't want to prosecute Jussie Smollett for an awful hoax crime. The DA in St Louis who prefers to prosecute homeowners defending their property, rather than criminals rioting and murdering. Soros should not be allowed to put any money toward any politicians campaign in America. Do we need reforms in the Judicial system? Yes, there are too many corrupt judges who ignore the Constitution and take bribes. Do we need reforms in the prison system? Yes. The system is rigged to those who have the money to afford a legal defense. And there are too many state and county prosecutors who use the system to maliciously prosecute people without regard to justice. Thankfully, justice was served against Smollett, sort of, he still has not served his sentence, he is out on bail. And justice was served in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, where he was a victim of malicious prosecution.

  3. This conversation made it seem like violence and crime in general, was not already at epidemic proportions, in many cities, prior to the pandemic. The Left refuses to acknowledge the cultural and individual aspect of violent crimes. To eliminate the individual from the analysis, will only allow the situation to linger and get worst. These reforms are long term solutions – Marshall Plan type of efforts, if you will. They need the help of the equivalent of a Martial Law type of efforts, which creates an environment in which, the long term solutions can have a chance to take root, and geminate to completion. Many violent criminals – likely most, are the exception in their family. Their siblings grow up in the same home and in the same environment, but take the normal way in life. It is mostly an individual choice to stray from the straight path. To put it all on society and government, is not being honest. Ex felons turn their lives around all the time. When they do, the opportunities to do so, are no more, than were available, when they were still engaging in crime. They could at any time, taken advantage of them.

    The first level of policing is the values and standards a community sets for itself. Many Black communities, have since the late 60's, at the least, lowered their standards. Many Black people will say, our people sell drugs to survive, even though they know it is antithetical to survival. The drugs themselves are deadly enough, on top of that, they are sold in a violent manner. White people, with all their weapons, addictions, and loss of jobs, over the recent decades, don't kill each other, at the rate we do. It is a culture of violence that has been cultivated, for over half a century. High unemployment doesn't explain the decline in academic achievement, in many of our schools. My Jr. High school in the 60's, was disruptive. Some of the boys my age were already drinking, sniffing solvents, drinking cough syrup, and then went on to taking pills, before graduating to heroin. They never graduated high school, some never sat foot in one. They all had fathers at home. We called them – those who, "went for bad'. Later they were called hoppers – the equivalent of the thug of today. This was a few years before Blaxploitation films.

    We were already receptive to the imagery that was projected in those films. The only association made today to the crime and violence of today, other than systemic structural racism, is made with the crack epidemic of the 80's and 90's. There is no appreciation of the part we played with our normalization of getting high, and criminal, and violent culture. If we refuse to acknowledge and address this, it will be very difficult, if not impossible to significantly reduce the levels we see today.

    The culture inside of prisons is also ignored. The culture of corruption in prisons, is likely as corrupt as in police departments. All the talk of 'school to prison pipelines' and 'the prison industrial complex', seems to have convinced those in positions, to address these matters, that Black people in genera, have no degree of personal agency, what so ever. It seems they feel we have no ability to make a conscious choice, on any aspect of our lives, yet many of the same people will say, how resilient we are as a people, to be where we are, having been enslaved.

    The guest said that those who are locked up for minor offenses are just like us, if they are, why can't we implore them to be just like us, and live a productive, contributing to society, law abiding, and peaceful life? We degrade them, when we do not set this standard. In the social/political climate we are in, this approach, is as beneficial to the opposition politically, as it is beneficial to those, who would benefit directly from progressive police and sentencing laws, especially if they are not yet at the point, where they consciously decide, to take control over their own lives.

  4. I think that's what we need in this country Progressive District Attorneys offices I believe every District Attorney's office is corrupt I believe the loaded with white people that just want to get convictions and hurt people most of the convictions of wrongful convictions they lie about the evidence they have they lie about the circumstances of the case and they wrongly convicted because they're full of angry white people white people should not be running no District Attorney's office white people should never be involved with criminal justice system if we take a look back at the things that were wrong in this country you will notice that these wrong what created by White Irish people some Italians and some Jews but the majority of these wrongful convictions what created by Angry White Irish people and that's my knowledge of a corrupt District Attorney's office

  5. Excellent interview my sister 👏🏿 it was clear she was about defending the public with her answer at 9:2011:20! Need politicians with her way of thinking in office so America can move to the next level rather than stay on this course of self destruction! 👐🏿

  6. Maryln Mosby seemed pretty progressive but you would know much more than I would,after all she was in your part of the world not mine!But I would like your opinion as it seems more educated than anything I could offer!

  7. there’s no reason or money in a system that works well if it’s fixed and good the police don’t get billions in money.

  8. I’ll tell you one thing. They can’t recognize Native Americans in Colorado as though they’re human beings, unless they make a fraudulent or use a fictional ID. When you show them your tribal ID they tell you that “It doesn’t matter and they’re just gonna charge you under your other ID (their fraudulent and fictitiously applied) one instead.

    Then they’re gonna get pissed when you take two or years telling them I can’t plea under that fictional ID, if you fix it I’d be happy to enter a plea though. That makes them go after illegally prison sentence’s they don’t have the authority to order.

  9. What to do?… when the "anti" policies transform from dillusion to reality?
    ~ how many more years of "do nothing/stalemate" legislation?

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