Violent crime soars in New York with 135 murders in five months

NEW York is struggling to cope with its worst violent crime surge in 20 years — even though 300 extra officers have been deployed on the streets.

Homicides have risen 19.5 per cent in the first five months of the year, with 135 murders across the city. Shootings have also been increasing for t wo successive years, for the first time since the late Nineties, official police figures show. Police commissioner Bill Bratton and mayor Bill de Blasio insist the city is not suffering a crime spree.

But the rise in the offences sparked fears of a return to New York’s “bad old days” of the Seventies before it was transformed into a mecca for tourists.

Residents now avoid Central Park at night after a spate of muggings including one by a gang of 15 knife-wielding teenagers. The New York Post has been particularly critic al of Mr Bratton, claiming he has gone soft.

He responded in a column for the newspaper — saying his officers will be targeting gangs in the summer months, when crime historically peaks.

“Even if we don’t succeed, the current rise is not the earth-shaking event that has been pictured,” he added. “The largest and most dense city in the US remains an extraordinarily safe environment.” The police figures show that though overall crime was down six per cent in the first five months of the year there were 510 shooting victims — a rise of 9.2 per cent on last year.

There were also 439 shootings, up 8.9 per cent on 2014.

Mr de Blasio has overseen a reduction in the number of police “stop and frisks”, New York’s equivalent of controversial UK stop and search laws.

The mayor has denied that this policy change — praised by his Democratic supporters — was behind the rise in crime and claimed New York is still the “safest big city” in the US. He said: “We have seen an overall reduction in crime. That trend speaks volumes too.”

Last December he and Mr Bratton faced down critics who thought the pair had lost control after the execution of two police officers as they sat in their marked car eating lunch.

Gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley claimed he was seeking revenge for the death of Michael Brown, 18, an unarmed black man from Ferguson, Missouri, who was shot dead by a white officer.

The killing sparked the worst racial tensions in America in a generation and preceded widespread protests over other police killings across the US.