By The newspaper
Aug 24, 2023, 12:34 PM EDT
Injuries caused by bladed weapons – stabbings and cuts – have increased this year in New York City and at the moment the figures offer an increase of 26% from 2019, according to data from the New York police.
Fatal cases have also risen. So far this year, 53 people have died from a knife, a surprising 29% increase compared to the 41 in 2019. But in this area there has been an improvement compared to the 69 cases in 2022, that is, 23% less .
From January 1 to August 13, the NYPD has tallied 3,365 non-fatal stabbings, compared to 2,666 four years ago. The figure is also 5% higher than the same period last year, when there were 3,208 non-fatal incidents of knife violence, he noted. New York Post.
“Now everyone carries them,” said a Brooklyn police officer with more than 20 years on the job, who is not surprised by that reality because knives are simply easier and cheaper to get than a gun, much less. risky.
“you stop [a alguien con un cuchillo] and he tells you: ‘I take it to work’. It’s probably a dumb answer… It’s like they know what to say to avoid getting arrested. And they know that even if you arrest them, it’s a citation… They know that no one is going to jail for that. You see it all the time lately. It’s crazy.”
Experts also blame the rise in statistics on legal reforms that took effect shortly before the pandemic.
In 2019, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill to end the criminal ban on gravity knives and certain folding pocket knives.
“It’s the same old story over and over again. Bad policy, non-enforcement because of that bad policy and this is what we’re dealing with…Now everyone is trying to figure out, ‘Why do we have so many knife attacks?’” Joseph Giacalone, a former Sgt. the New York Police Department and a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Another reason criminals like knives is because they can be concealed until the moment of attack, explained Robert LaMonica Sr., a retired sergeant after 23 years with the NYPD.
Attacks with bladed weapons have become more frequent in various settings: streets, buildings, homes, buses, the Metro, parties, schools, and even commercial establishments and ATM areas.
Young people are increasingly protagonists in gun violence in New York as victims and perpetrators, particularly shootings and attacks with bladed weapons.
In September of last year, an NYPD report found that recidivism among teens had risen sharply over the past five years and the number of gunmen and their underage victims had tripled.
This week a 58-year-old woman was found dead at the door of her apartment in Brooklyn (NYC) with stab wounds.
Last week a 14-year-old student was assaulted by a group and stabbed in the stomach in broad daylight outside a school where he was attending summer exams in Queens (NYC).
In July, a man with a long history of burglary was stabbed to death in a confrontation with security at a CVS store in Times Square, a New York tourist mecca.
In June, a 32-year-old passenger died after being stabbed multiple times in a drug fight inside a subway car in Manhattan.
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