New York panicked amid rising crime

The sense of security, which over the years has become synonymous with New York, has been overshadowed in recent months by rising violent crime. This caused concern that the hard-won results are slowly being discounted, the newspaper writes. Fox News.

“Crime is out of control”

According to police, on February 8 and 9 in the Bronx a couple of policemen were ambushed, one of them was injured from a firearm in the chin. A few hours later, the same man opened fire on a police station in the Bronx, striking one officer in the arm. Both attacks were identified as "attempted".

“Crime is out of control. People forget how bad it is, ”retired NYPD detective Malcolm Reiman, who served 31 years since the early 1980s, told Fox News. According to him, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Since the beginning of 2020, the city has already recorded 30% more shootings compared to the same period in 2019. According to New York City police, there are already about 80 casualties, compared to 56 last year.

As reported at a recent press conference at which the overall surge in crime this year was described in detail, the crime rate this year is 16,9% higher than last January. The data also indicates an increase in the number of cases of seven major crimes, including robberies, serious crimes, burglaries, especially thefts and theft of vehicles.

When the rise in crime began

For the first time in many years in 2019, New York saw an increase in crime. Official statistics show that more than 300 people were killed, which is almost 8% more than in 2018, and is the highest figure in three years.

The worrying thought that New York may be on the brink of a crime epidemic is fueled by a string of highly publicized and grisly murders - including the December death of Barnard college student Tessa Majors, who was stabbed to death.

Between 2018 and 2019, the number of robberies and shootings increased by about 3% and the number of violent crimes by 1,4%. Rape was the only category of the seven in which crime fell by about 2,5%, from 1805 to 1760 between 2018 and 2019. However, the police admitted that many such cases still occur, but they are not reported.

The number of hate crimes has also increased from 356 in 2018 to 428 in 2019.

New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called this growth a "problem." However, the New York police said that the number of criminal offenses was reduced to about 95 thousand (800 less than a year earlier). However, these statistics do not take into account the type or severity of the crime committed.

The reason for the increase in the number of crimes

Police point to banditry and the underground drug industry as the main reason for the increase in the number of murders and shootings.

Experts and analysts are also questioning the recently passed bail reform law, which was passed thanks to Democrats last spring. At a press conference last month, Shea reiterated that such laws - which no longer give the judge leeway to detain rapists and repeat offenders and drastically reduce bail for nonviolent defendants - are primarily to blame.

In addition, new laws on the disclosure of crimes are in force in New York, according to which prosecutors are required to provide all evidence and contact information about witnesses only within 15 days after the arrest.

On the subject: New York City subway rages in crime: transport union demands police protection

Earlier this month, New York City's largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, was alarmed by a sharp increase in crime and declared a "public safety emergency." In a statement, President Patrick Lynch called on New Yorkers to "reject Mayor Bill de Blasio's easy excuses." “Collateral reform is not the only problem here. The double-digit increase in gunfights, robberies, burglaries and burglaries is not the product of one law or policy, he said. "They are all the result of poor leadership and a political culture that denigrates and devalues ​​police officers."

US President Donald Trump has publicly blamed Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, citing their "weak leadership."

However, not everyone believes that bail laws are the main contributor to the rise in crime in New York. "It is difficult to directly draw a comparison between bail legislation and what is perceived as an increase in crime in New York - it looks like the conversation is turning into an 'anecdotal' style of propaganda, which could ultimately harm positive reforms," ​​said Jesse Kelly , Manager of Government Relations, R Street Institute, a nonprofit center for public policy.

Ashley Nellis, senior research analyst at the Sentencing Project, noted that the Bail Reform Act has only been in effect for one month, and thus "it is too early to talk about it." “Most will not be found guilty of the crime,” she explained. "The impact of this imprisonment and the attendant consequences that accompany it are far more dangerous to public safety than the bail reform law."

In response to Fox News’s request for comment on the shooting at officers in the Bronx, Mayor’s spokesman Freddie Goldstein said February 10 that the mayor’s “doesn’t want to politicize the attempted murder of our men and women.” The condemnation of the Union was violently rejected by de Blasio's office.

However, there are other laws that are pending criticism. State SB S2144 is an “executive law amendment act regarding the right to parole of certain prisoners aged 55 and over”. In fact, the law will grant the right to parole to persons over 55 who have served at least 15 years behind bars, regardless of the type of crime. “The number of elderly inmates in our prison system is growing every year, even as the total number of inmates is declining,” says a bill presented by Democratic New York Senator Brad Hoylman. "The number of prisoners over the age of 50 has increased by 81 percent since 2000." Most of the crimes are committed by young people. Older prisoners serving long prison sentences represent the lowest risk of recurrence among all other categories of prisoners. Hoilman argues that the law does not authorize release, but allows a review of the case. This law is now awaiting approval from the Governor.

During Mayor Michael Bloomberg's tenure as Mayor, starting in 2002, there was a “stop-and-frisk” policy that allows NYPD to stop and interrogate anyone and then check for weapons or prohibited substances ... However, most of them were black or Hispanic and in many cases did not raise reasonable suspicions of a crime. “There has been some stop-and-search abuse,” admitted Eric Pistek, a former NYPD detective who served under former Police Commissioner William Bratton before retiring in 2000. "But, in addition to bail reform, in my opinion, crime is on the rise, and the numbers reflect that."

According to him, it seems that politicians care more about criminals than about police.

De Blasio, who replaced Bloomberg in 2014, promised to reform controversial policies.

The vague past of New York

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, New York City was defined as a kind of hell on earth. Murders, robberies, car thefts, burglaries and drug trafficking were all commonplace in everyday life in the city.

Several retired NYPD officers cited the mammoth crack epidemic, which peaked around 1995, as the main culprit at the time. “The NYPD created special anti-crack units that became anti-drug tactical teams,” said Pistek. “We've cleared Times Square of sex shops and theaters, and the police have begun to fight quality-of-life crimes like prostitution. On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a targeted operation known as Operation Pressure Point was carried out, which was a street-level war on drugs.

In the second half of the 1990s, crime rates plummeted, with violent crime falling by more than 56% and property crimes by about 65%. Many attribute this credit to then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who became mayor in 1994 with zero tolerance and tough politics.

In the 1990s, New York City police increased by approximately 35%. Many analysts also point to the appointment in 1990 of a police officer from Boston, William Bratton, to the post of chief of the New York Transit Police, and then, from 1994 to 1996, to lead the New York Police as a catalyst for a significant reduction in crime in the city .

Giuliani also ordered a crackdown on organized crime, focusing attention on well-known criminals such as the Gambino family. “Then we were able to do our job without hindrance. The cops earned respect on the streets, and the bad guys knew we weren't afraid to do our job, and as a result, crime began to drop to record lows, ”retired police investigator Joe Thompson said. "There is no doubt that crime is and will continue to grow."

But Commissioner Shea remains optimistic. “I am so positive because I know the work of the men and women in this department and what they are capable of,” he added at a press conference in early February 2020. "Challenges are not new."