Almost all NYPD stations have seen increases in crime in their territories so far this year 2022, and in five of them the rate has increased doubled, according to the latest troubling statistics from the NYPD.
“No neighborhood is safe,” a Brooklyn police officer warned the New York Post on Tuesday. “At this rate, we’ll lose the city by St. Patrick’s Day,” next 17 March, he added wryly.
The only police station in Manhattan that did not experience an increase in the crime rate was the 22, the one that covers Central Park. “Only squirrels are safe,” added another policeman sarcastically. “Tourists will never come back”.
In 72 of the 77 NYC police districts have increased crime, leaving only five at levels of 2021 or falling below the figures for the same period of the previous year.
NYPD CompStat numbers show that the District 110 in Elmhurst (Queens) has been hit by highest increase in crime as of Sunday, up more than 142% from last year. The largest percentage increases in the venue were due to major thefts, with 197 incidents so far this year compared to 43 at the same point in 2021; serious assaults rose from 28 to 59, and the robberies of 18 to 30.
The contractor local masonry Luis Gutiérrez blamed the crime wave on the dire economic situation in Corona. “It gets worse because prices go up, rent goes up, diapers, everything goes up except jobs,” the father of four told the New York Post on Tuesday. “My wife is too scared, so we are moving to Suffolk, Long Island, next month.”
Second on the list riddled with crime is the District 26 in Harlem, which reported an increase of 122% in incidents so far this year, mainly due to increases in robberies, grand thefts and assaults.
In that precinct in northern Manhattan, two young Hispanic police officers were shot to death while responding to an act of domestic violence in mid-January, prompting a visit by President Joe Biden to the city to support the NYPD.
After the rise of armed violence in 2020 and 2020 particularly among young gang members and/or victims, the 2022 started with the same trend, representing a great challenge for the new mayor Adams, a former NYPD officer. According to the latest figures, there were 100 shootings across the city last month, a jump from January 2021 when they registered 76. These figures also show an increase with respect to 2020 and 2019, when there were 67 Y 52 acts of shooting, respectively.
Controversial new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who lives in Harlem, revised a couple of his most controversial policies last week with a new memo calling for commercial robberies committed with weapons to be prosecuted again as “crimes.” serious”.
In the recent past, several factors that analysts, union leaders, politicians and citizens themselves have linked to the rise in violence are the controversial bail reforms in force in the state of NY since January 2020 with the support of then Governor Andrew Cuomo; the massive release of prisoners to avoid contagion by the coronavirus; the mental health crisis with more homelessness on the streets and the Metro; and the reduction of funds to the police promoted by the City Council and former Mayor Bill De Blasio.
His successor Adams has promised to reverse this situation, but has encountered obstacles within his own Democratic party.