From News Nation:
“2020 a
violent year for New York City, murder increased 41%”
Heralded in
recent years as the safest big city in America, New York City is closing out
its bloodiest year in nearly a decade, struggling with a surge in homicides and
a pandemic authorities say has helped fuel violence. More evidence of that
surfaced this week on social media. A group of about two-dozen young men was
recorded attacking a BMW SUV, terrorizing the driver and his elderly mother in
Manhattan. New York City CrimeStoppers and the NYPD released video and stills
hoping for quick arrests. “It’s absolutely unacceptable,” said Mayor Bill De
Blasio on Thursday. ”And y’know, you have these teenagers doing something
that’s just wrong. Period. At least one has been arrested. The others will be.”
Police said the suspect in custody is 15-years-old and that they’re close to
identifying at least two others. There were about 25 in the group that appeared
to have attacked a taxi and its driver minutes before moving on to the SUV. The attack comes amid growing concern in the
nation’s largest city about increasing violent crime, some of it attributed to
the pandemic and the resulting displacement of New York’s homeless.
NewsNation
looked at some of the crime trends emerging in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago
in 2020 and found some striking parallels. Sexual assaults in all three were
down considerably — by double digits — 19.4%, 24.7% and 22% respectively. Cases
of felony assault were also either down or flat from 2019, but murders were up
dramatically — 41% in New York, 33.5% in Los Angeles and 55% in Chicago. Former
NYPD detective Bo Dietl believes he understands the reason, at least in the
case of New York, chalking it up to a justice system that treats criminals too
lightly and police too harshly, with officers concerned about facing
allegations of brutality, he believes, if they’re too aggressive in doing their
jobs. “Anywhere you walk around this city you’ve got roving gangs,” Dietl said.
“Now whenever you do something, first thing that happens- all the boys come out
with their cameras. When the cop tries to talk to somebody, they come out. And
they’re already trying to attack the cop.” Police leaders are eagerly
anticipating the turn of the calendar, pointing to unprecedented challenges
officers faced as COVID-19 brought the city to its knees.
Crime-fighting
this year has been complicated by everything from budget constraints to the
ubiquity of mask-wearing. Clearance rates fell as detective squads were
stricken by the virus, and faith in law enforcement faltered amid police
killings of Black people. “We’re definitely coming out of that dark period,”
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at police headquarters Tuesday. “The
confluence of COVID into the protests into all of the debate about defunding
the police — I can’t imagine a darker period.” The spike in violence started
just as the pandemic began disrupting lives and shuttering businesses, and it
reached a crescendo over the summer, as the city recorded an average 57
killings per month in July, August and September. By comparison, each of those
months averaged 33 homicides in 2019.
^ It is
absolutely no surprise that New York City’s Murder Rate is up in 2020. It is to
be expected when the New York Governor and the New York City Mayor both attack
the State and City Police Departments in their statements and actions.
Defunding money, training, equipment and personnel from the Police Departments
and then expecting the remaining officers to do much more with much less is
stupid. What you get is seen in these numbers: more crime, more murder and less
protection for the residents and tourists of New York. ^
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