To forget his parents, relatives, and those who love him even in death would be an unforgivable offense despite what we have learned through public documents about his life. For a moment, think about those who still live and who with every breath will remember Alvin Simon. Simon barely saw his 35th birthday and died behind the counter of an upper Manhattan bodega deli.
And of the man, Jose Alba, who stabbed Alvin Simon–a career criminal on parole whose acts included assaulting a police officer?
By all accounts, deli clerk Alba was doing his job, being a clerk. This is not as exciting as going to Harvard Law School or lecturing about what they now call restorative justice. It is being on your feet 16-hours a day work. There is nothing fancy or fame bound to it. You are a clerk going nowhere the next day but behind the counter. And in many neighborhoods where the clerk job is practiced, plexiglass atop the counter separating clerk and customer is as good as it gets.
Alba did not wake up the morning of that day of death saying to himself that this would be a good day to meet someone named Alvin Simon with hopes that Simon would jump behind the counter so Alba could stab him, kill him. Alba did not say to himself after I kill Simon they will send me to Rikers Island—which no one ever told him is a nice place to stay this time of year—because District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office would demand a bail of $250,000. Money which Alba could only be able to raise after the cow jumps over the moon and the dish runs away with the spoon.
Alvin Simon died while it is reported and there is video evidence he grabbed Jose Alba’s neck. When one does that while screaming at the person he is choking, it is generally not an act of love. And in such a circumstance, Alba did what makes sense. And what Alvin Simon would have done were he the one who was being choked. Alba, the deli clerk, grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon, to save his own life.
That Jose Alba did not say to convicted cop assaulter Alvin Simon please stop choking me or I will have to grab a knife and do whatever I must do to make sure I see my family after I finish my long work day is what the “Woke” gang would have wanted to hear.
Alba did not want to die. He killed his attacker to live.
You can bet soon that the cops will be blamed for this mess. After all, why would you blame Alvin Bragg? His office is really Manhattan’s official Rikers Island travel agent. His assistants decide what bail they will ask the judge to set. His assistants decide which charges will be presented to the arraigning judge. In a case like this, nothing happens without the District Attorney.
Defending your life while being choked is a new crime now. It could be called the Alba Doctrine. If you think this is all good for New York, you know for sure that the cow will jump over the moon. It’s likely than that Alvin Bragg agrees with you: the dish did run way with the spoon. Yup.
