#NYC detectives union calls for Hochul to replace Manhattan DA Alvin Braggs

The head of the New York City Police Department detectives’ union urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to appoint a special prosecutor if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg refuses to enforce the law in criminal cases.

Detectives’ Endowment Association president Paul DiGiacomo, in a letter to the governor dated Wednesday, asked her to “intervene and appoint a special prosecutor to oversee those matters in which the Manhattan District Attorney fails to abide by his sworn oath of office and declines to prosecute or downgrades violent felony offenses in order to advance his personal, unsafe, reckless, and personal agenda.”

DiGiacomo referenced Bragg’s Jan. 3 memo to his prosecutors urging them to decline to prosecute some non-violent cases and to downgrade various felony crimes to misdemeanors, including certain armed robberies.

The policy is already being seen put in action as The Post has reported earlier this week on a case of a robber wielding a knife being downgraded from a felony to a lesser misdemeanor charge.

“District Attorney Bragg was elected to enforce the law, not to make new law,” DiGiacomo said.

“Clearly, the Constitution of the State of New York obligates the governor to ensure the laws of the State of New York are faithfully and fully executed. It is incumbent on all of us in law enforcement to ensure that the safety and well-being of all New Yorkers is our primary goal,” DiGiacomo said.

The union leader appealed to Hochul to “do the right thing” and make sure Bragg is complying with the law.

Bragg, through a spokesman, dismissed the detectives’ union criticism as “political grandstanding.”

“DA Alvin Bragg was elected overwhelmingly by the people of Manhattan. Informed by his lived experience and 20-year record as a prosecutor, he’s doing the work to make us safer and the system more just — and won’t be distracted by the political grandstanding of others,” said Bragg senior adviser Richard Fife.

Hochul had no immediate comment.