Good morning. It's Thursday. We'll look at how recent episodes of gun violence are testing the resolve of Alvin Bragg, the new Manhattan district attorney. We'll also look at a crime at the theater that is home to the long-running play "Perfect Crime." |
 | | Mike Segar/Reuters |
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Alvin Bragg, who took office as Manhattan's district attorney at the beginning of the year, campaigned on the promise of lenient policies that he said would make the criminal justice system fairer. He often talked about gun possession cases that did not merit tough prosecution or prison sentences. Not everyone charged with such crimes was linked to violence, he said. |
That was before a series of high-profile shootings that brought new unease to a city frayed and exhausted from the pandemic. On the job little more than three weeks, District Attorney Bragg faced backlash over policies he had promoted as Candidate Bragg. |
On Wednesday, he announced a recalibration. He said that since taking office, he had realized he needed to be clearer about when traditional prosecution was appropriate. He also appointed a new prosecutor to oversee his office's work on gun crimes. |
My colleague Jonah Bromwich writes that Bragg's shift in tone came a couple of days after Mayor Eric Adams announced a "Blueprint to End Gun Violence." Besides spelling out actions the city would take, it called on criminal justice entities — including district attorneys like Bragg — to adopt tougher policies to crack down on gun violence. |
Bragg now hopes to turn the page on his first couple of weeks in office. He began his tenure with a memo instructing the 500 or so prosecutors who work for him to seek jail or prison time for only the most serious crimes. Gun possession was not among them, except when there were "exceptional circumstances." |
Bragg wanted to balance keeping the public safe with reducing the harm that the criminal justice system can do to defendants. But after the memo landed him at the center of the debate about prosecutorial responsibility, he found himself assuring audiences that violent crime would be taken seriously. In an appearance on Monday with the nonprofit Citizens Crime Commission, he amended his usual mantra of "safety and fairness." |
"I've almost been thinking about saying, rather than 'safety and fairness,' it's like 'safety and safety,'" he said. |
He now says prosecutors in his office will have discretion in the individual cases they handle. And Peter Pope, whom Bragg appointed to a new job overseeing the office's work on gun crimes, said he would focus on who was driving gun crimes in Manhattan and where the guns were coming from. |
It's a mostly sunny day with a very cold start and temps rising to the low 30s. They will drop to the 20s as Arctic high pressure hovers over the region with a chance of snow later in the evening. |
In effect until Monday (Lunar New Year's Eve). |
Was a copper caper the perfect crime? |
 | | Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times |
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The perfect crime? It was definitely a showstopper. |
The long-running Off Broadway play "Perfect Crime" missed eight performances this week, not because of positive coronavirus tests among cast members — a problem that has hobbled some Broadway shows — but because of a crime. Someone stole the copper water and heating pipes from the building that has been home to "Perfect Crime" since 2005. Catherine Russell, who has performed in "Perfect Crime" since it opened in 1987, said performances would resume tonight. |
"It is ironic that the play is 'Perfect Crime' and this is kind of a perfect crime — they got away with it," said Russell, who will appear as the psychiatrist for the 13,812th time tonight. "Perfect Crime" bills itself as the longest-running play in New York City history. It reopened in April, the first Off Broadway show with a live audience to do so with approval from Actors' Equity after a 13-month pandemic shutdown. |
The theft did not seem to have "the makings of a crackling thriller" — a phrase The New York Times used about "Perfect Crime" when it opened in 1987. The play has to do with a murder, a bumbling detective and a psychiatrist the detective can't quite connect to the crime. |
The police have not connected anyone to the pipe theft, either, although Sgt. Jessica McRorie, a police spokeswoman, said the investigation was continuing. |
Russell said the caper must have begun last Thursday. She had noticed a leak around the boiler a couple of hours before curtain time. At 10:30, when she went back with a plumber, she noticed that some of the pipes were bent. "I said, 'They weren't bent at 6 o'clock,'" she recalled. "He said, 'People steal copper pipes.'" |
The next morning, someone called from the drugstore that shares the building, saying there was no water. "The thieves had very kindly turned off the water," she said, but she realized this only after she twirled the valves and water gushed out. |
Russell, who is also the general manager of the building, the Theater Center at 210 West 50th Street, reported the crime to the police. She suspects that the culprits broke into a vacant former Irish pub that shares the building with the theater and, from there, made their way to the basement, where the pipes they disconnected and stole had been. |
Another clue, or another crime? Bullet casings and blood were found on the floor of the vacant pub, she said. And on Sunday night, surveillance video showed that a man wearing kneepads tried to kick in the glass door to the theater, she said. "I think he had a purpose." |
She said that eight performances of "Perfect Crime" were canceled, as were four performances of "The Office! A Musical Parody," running in a second theater in the building. She estimated losing between $25,000 and $30,000. She said the actors had been paid for the missed performances. |
Russell said she was ready if the thieves returned. "I've got my gun," she said. "I shoot a gun in the play. I'm not walking around with a real gun. But I've got my pepper spray. I've always had pepper spray in my purse. I've never used it." |
I was waiting for the B at Rockefeller Center when I noticed I was bleeding. I asked a woman on the platform if she had any tissues. |
She started hunting through her bag as the train pulled into the station. |
"I'll get the next one," she said, still rummaging. |
She dug out some sanitizer wipes. The train was still there, and we jumped on just before it pulled out. |
It wasn't long before she realized she couldn't find her phone. I called it several times hoping to see it vibrate in her bag, but the calls went to voice mail. |
Other riders got caught up in what was going on, telling me to keep calling and telling her to go back to Rockefeller Center. She got off at 86th Street to head back. |
I noticed I had missed some calls. Then I got another one. |
"I think I have your phone," a man said when I answered. I realized the woman must have dropped it when she was searching through her bag for me. |
I asked the man to give the phone to the station agent. He said he would rather wait to give it to the woman himself. It would be safer, he said. |
"Look at that," he said. "She was helping you. Now I can help her." |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
Melissa Guerrero, Olivia Parker and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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