"Bodega" is one of those places that we grew up going to.  "El bodeguero," or the man who works at "la bodega," is one of those faces in the community that everybody knows and likes.  When I was a kid in Cuba, my mother would call "la bodega" with an order, and "el bodeguero" would send someone on a motorcycle with bags of things.  My mother would sign a note, and some kind of credit account was created.  All I know is that my father would go by and pay the account and smoke a cigar.  It all worked so well, and "la bodega" was in the middle of it all.

So what happened in New York?  A "bodeguero" was arrested for defending himself?  Here is the story:

The facts of that case as they’ve been reported: After an argument between 61-year-old bodega worker Jose Alba and a woman customer, the woman’s boyfriend, Austin Simon, entered the bodega and attacked Alba behind the counter. 

During the struggle, Alba grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon. At some point Simon’s girlfriend also joined the fight, stabbing Alba several times in the arm. 

Simon died of his wounds. Alba was arrested by police and charged with intentional murder by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.   

That the incident, and Alba’s apparent efforts at self-defense, were caught on video fueled instantaneous outrage over the arrest — which only grew as new facts emerged. 

For one, Alba is by all accounts a longtime pillar of his community, a mild-mannered Dominican immigrant with no criminal record who works long hours. Simon, a 35-year-old violent career criminal with numerous felony arrests, was out on parole for assaulting a police officer.

What's happening to the country, or more specifically to New York?  Alba, age 61, stabs Simon, age 35, in self-defense, and he is the villain of the story?  And Simon is a career criminal to go with it!

It's hard to tell what electoral impact this will have in New York City.  I can guarantee that this story will flow from coast to coast and remind everyone that Democrats don't care about the people who work and pay taxes.

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Image: Tyler A. McNeil.