Madeline Brame, whose son, Hason Correa, was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018, told Newsmax Saturday that elected officials and the media are "gaslighting" communities of color by not admitting to how bad the crime problem has become.
"We have Black leaders that are filthy rich standing up and telling poor Black and brown people that it is just our imagination. It's just our perception. It's not as bad as we think that it is," Brame, who testified before lawmakers earlier this week about Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s soft-on-crime tactics, said during "America Right Now" Saturday.
"[They tell us] stop letting the media and the far right MAGA Republicans scare us when we could just step outside of our door and get shot. All that is nothing but gaslighting because they have an agenda that they want to, you know that they must carry out for some reason."
Brame said her son was killed by four individuals, including two who are now serving 20-year prison sentences. Two others pleaded guilty to lesser charges offered by Bragg, who is trying to prosecute former President Donald Trump on 34 felonies.
Brame said Bragg does not seem interested in prosecuting violent crimes in the city.
"There's a few moving parts we have, social justice, restorative justice, prosecutors that are apparently in office that don't believe in prosecuting crime," she said. "Alvin Bragg’s day-one memo told America that he's not in the business of prosecuting current [crimes]."
She said his crime policies have failed, leading to a "lawlessness" in the city that is decimating Black and brown communities because criminals rarely face consequences for their crimes.
"It's just a disgrace. These people are not fit to be dogcatchers," she said. "From City Hall, to Albany, all of them need to be voted out of office, and I implore all Black and brown people to protest and have your voice is heard at the ballot box."
Brame said that Black Americans need to "walk away from the plantation of the Democratic Party."
"If you don't like the word Republican, register as a conservative, or even an independent," she said. "I'm not telling anybody what to vote for, but I'm imploring them to please research candidates, because we have the power. The power is in our taxes and in our vote. We have the power to change the whole trajectory."
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