This week, Manhattan’s chief prosecutor demonstrated his painting abilities in Washington Square Park as an unusual effort to “heal” the city, even as drug users slumbered nearby.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg, often criticized for being lenient on crime, was seen by The Post engrossed in a watercolor painting as part of his July workshop series titled “art of healing.”
The decision to hold the event at this specific location was intentional — the park’s northwest corner has deteriorated into a rampant drug haven, with discarded syringes on the ground and individuals openly using drugs on benches and beneath trees.
“We want to take back the park and make it available for those who live and visit the area to do things like the artwork we were just doing, you know listen to music, enjoy the park,” Bragg told The Post.
“It’s very intentional to pick that part of the park which has had some challenges,” Bragg, who was there for about an hour with his entourage and fielded questions from a handful of community members, added.
The DA’s office has been putting on these taxpayer-funded summer art workshops annually – in past years focusing on gun violence.
“It’s absolutely baffling,” fumed Trevor Sumner, Greenwich Village resident and president of the Washington Square Association.
“The whole thing is an utter farce. To have the guy who’s most responsible for the rampant drug use, mental illness and violence in the park come here to gaslight the entire neighborhood like it doesn’t exist. It’s infuriating.”
Moments before Bragg began painting a tree in watercolor, the city’s drug crisis blossomed in real time a few feet away.
Police officers tried to revive a glassy-eyed junkie slumped on a bench — and workers from the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance were seen covertly slipping free syringes to addicts.
The needles are part of so-called “harm reduction kits” the $13 million pro-drug non-profit touts online.
They come complete with drug paraphernalia that includes syringes, alcohol wipes, cotton, tourniquets and cookers, according to the group.
It’s unclear how long the group – which was founded in 1994 with funding from far left-billionaire George Soros and lobbied for marijuana legalization – has been operating in the junkie-filled section of the park.
Soros is the Drug Policy Alliance’s chief donor and previous chairman. His son Alex Soros still sits on its board.
The organization, which said its philosophy is about “meeting people where they are,” declined to comment.
Harm reduction enables addicts to shoot up rather than getting them to quit, critics have charged.
“The idea is that people should only seek treatment when they’re ready. But most people addicted to drugs are addicted for their whole lives,” Charles Fane Lehmann, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, recently told The Post.
“They often regard efforts to get people into treatment . . . as actively hostile to the interests of people who use drugs.”
Meanwhile, the NYPD’s Sixth Precinct continues to arrest the park’s regular half a dozen dealers — most of whom are released shortly after.
“No one should feel comfortable selling drugs in the West Village, especially Washington Square Park,” cops posted this week after another bust.
A record 471 narcotics arrests have been made in the precinct alone so far this year, up 68% from a year ago, according to NYPD data.
