Rep. Fry to Newsmax: NYC Crime Result of Playing ‘Games’

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., told Newsmax on Monday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has emboldened criminals in New York City and that the city’s rise in crime is what happens “when you play games with public safety.”

“I think you see a couple of things that are going on in New York, and you see this in other jurisdictions too,” Fry said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “National Report.” “You see a soft-on-crime approach. You see memos that are going out, they’re not prosecuting crimes. Felonies prosecutions are down significantly. Convictions are down significantly, across the board.

“You see [New York Democrat] Gov. [Kathy] Hochul doing the cash bail reform. And of course, you see the demonization of police through defund the police and a mass exodus that seems to be appearing within the New York Police Department.

“I think all those things coupled together, this is the natural result of what happens when you play games with public safety. We need to get back to governing. Law enforcement is a core function of government.

“We should be doing this well, above all else. But in New York, there’s a very different story going on.”

When asked about House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., accusing Republicans of using Monday’s field hearing on Bragg’s criminal policies in New York City to defend former President Donald Trump, Fry said he didn’t give Nadler’s opening statement much credence.

“Congressman Nadler said that we were imagining a border crisis, and so I don’t take a lot of things that he says seriously,” he said. “I think that what he’s doing today is deflect and distract the American people from what’s really going on. But if you listen to these witnesses, if you talk to people that are on the ground, heck, I was with a cab driver yesterday that said he’s never seen it as bad as it is.”

“The district attorney, on day one, released what he called the ‘Day 1’ memo, which didn’t follow the law or the facts,” he continued. “If you’re a prosecutor, you follow the facts of the case in order to charge a criminal defendant based on what actually happened.

“Here, with the ‘Day 1’ memo released by District Attorney Bragg, he’s not following the facts.”

Fry said that, ordinarily, law enforcement works together with the district attorney’s office as a partner; Bragg’s office, he said, is doing something very different.

“Law enforcement, which is usually a partner with prosecutors, now seems to be not,” he said. “The prosecutor’s office seems to be a public defender, more so than they do a prosecutor, and so I think, again, it really highlights the dangerous policies that are coming out of, not only New York, but in jurisdictions across the country.”

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