SHOOTINGS WORST IN 14 YEARS: NYPD BOSS
‘A year like no other’ in gun violence: commish
The surging gun violence in New York City is on pace to hit a 14-year high, the city’s top cop said Tuesday.
“I wish I had better news on gun violence specifically . . . we’re looking to close out the year on a 14-year high,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on in a morning appearance on NY1.
“This has been a year like no other.” The city has seen 1,433 shooting incidents and 1,756 gun-violence victims as of Monday — nearly double last year’s numbers over the same time, according to NYPD data.
“We had nine shootings yesterday,” Shea said. “Last year that would have been a full week.”
Shea touted the department’s uptick in gun arrests over the last three months, which were up by 25 percent year-to-date, but said the elimination of bail in most cases means police make little headway.
“We have made staggering numbers of gun arrests, taking guns off the streets from felons . . . but when you look, three days later, four days later, those individuals are back on the street committing more gun violence,” Shea said.
“Until we come to that realization as a society, is this what we want? It’s good to have philosophical discussions about ‘end mass incarceration’ and ‘end incarceration,’ but you don’t want to do it by turning the innocent public into jails in their own apartments and houses.
“We don’t want to throw people behind bars and not give them a second chance,” he continued on NY1. “We can continue to drive down incarceration, but no one in jail, no one being accountable is not the way.
“We need a middle ground.” The department could not immediately provide numbers on Tuesday showing how many people arrested for guns were later released without
bail only to be arrested for a shooting.
In an interview with Pix11, Shea elaborated.
“People are missing the boat,” he said. “You can’t identify and take guns out of the hands of violent people that want to use those guns and not have consequences. And that is by far the largest problem that we’re facing.”
The city’s top cop accepted some blame for the NYPD’s role in the surging gun violence, saying, “I don’t think you ever do enough.”
“You know, no one is held accountable. It’s going to take all of us sitting down having those hard conversations,” he added.
As the City Council called for “defunding the police” in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Shea disbanded the gun-hunting anti
crime unit. He justified the cut by pointing to a number of controversial, high-profile busts the unit had been involved in over recent years.
Other possible factors variously cited by police leaders and unions have included restrictive new legislation over how cops can physically engage with suspects and significant cuts city pols made to the department’s budget amid protests.
“My fear is that too much of this is certainly COVID — certainly this has been a year like no other — but COVID is not going to be the end all be all in my professional opinion," Shea said.