No ‘Corner Turned’ on Crime

Overall crime in New York City dropped in 2023 over 2022; we’re still the “safest big city in America,” as Mayor Adams boasted recently — but that’s cold comfort when we’re still far behind 2019, the last year before the destructive effects of our criminal-justice “reforms” made themselves visible.

Consider car thefts: 5,438 in 2019; 15,802 in 2023. That’s a jump of 191% — and 15% higher than 2022’s awful total of 13,741.

Auto theft is a crime of vast social import, nearly as big a violation as a home break-in. And yes, insurance can cover it, but the hassle of getting paid out and getting another vehicle is a life-wrecking inconvenience.

That a huge chunk of the increase was apparently driven by social-media dares over stealing Hyundais and Kias only proves just how bad the lawlessness has gotten.

Crime is up 31% overall since 2019, with big jumps in felony assaults (almost 35%), shootings (27%) and robberies (26%).

Yes, crime fell in 2023 over 2022, overall and in five of the seven major crime categories, including a 12% drop in homicides and 25% in shootings.

But that’s still a 21% rise in murders over 2019. And these numbers don’t even touch our shoplifting plague, which led the country from mid 2019 to summer 2023 with a 64% increase (does anyone think it’s gotten better since then?).

That has left retailers — those that haven’t closed — locking up goods and their employees vulnerable to unstable repeat offenders, all efforts to accommodate a new reality created by progressive indifference to the plight of average New Yorkers.

Plus, the overall bad vibes that are keeping tourists away from Broadway: 2023 ticket sales are down 17% versus the 2018-2019 season (the last full season pre-COVID) — with a big chunk of older visitors from the suburbs, a key demo, saying they are now staying away for safety reasons.

Adams and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban are fighting the good fight on crime; this is ultimately a problem caused by the leftist ideologues who dominate Albany and our own City Council.

But with the NYPD’s ranks shrinking and those lefties looking to pump out more justice “reforms,” it’s far too early for the mayor to crow “we have turned the corner of crime in our city.”