Scott lashes Blaz’s rodent ‘welcome mat’
Half of the shootings that have rattled New York City this summer happened in Brooklyn or have a strong link to the borough, the NYPD’s top cop said Tuesday.
“That’s a big problem,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in an interview on NY1.
“What we’re starting to see, even shootings in other boroughs, when you dig a little deeper and peel back the onion, you see Brooklyn individuals and perpetrators with active gun cases in Brooklyn committing violence in other parts of the city.”
As of Sunday, 475 people had been shot in Brooklyn this year, accounting for just under half the victims citywide, NYPD statistics show. By this time last year, 234 Brooklynites had been shot.
The majority of this year’s Brooklyn shootings, 309 of them, took place in the borough’s northern half, in neighborhoods including East New York, Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Shea’s comments come on the heels of another bloody weekend in the city, in which 51 people were shot, six fatally, in 39 incidents between Friday and Sunday.
An additional seven people were wounded Monday, Shea noted.
“It’s a very rough patch for sure,” Shea said. “We had started to see small incremental improvements. We took a step backwards this week, but it’s still full speed ahead.
“New Yorkers demand safe streets,” he added. “The NYPD wants to be a huge part of that with our partners, and it’s something we are all working towards.”
Shootings in the city skyrocketed at the beginning of the summer, culminating in a bloody Fourth of July weekend in which 41 people were shot, nine fatally, in one day.
Oh, rats!
Managerial incompetence is turning the city into a trashinfested rodent paradise, city Comptroller Scott Stringer said Tuesday, blaming Mayor de Blasio for the pungent problem.
“Instead of welcoming potential customers, the city has rolled out a different welcome mat — for the rats of our city,” Stringer said at a Harlem news conference. “These rats have the run of New York City, and if we don’t get this under control now, we can forget about it.”
Among other painful budget cuts, the city slashed $10 million for litter basket collection this year, leading the Sanitation Department to reduce its rounds from seven to three days a week, according to Stringer. That’s led to a 60% increase in rat complaints, he added, saying small businesses are the ones to suffer.
“I understand that we are in the midst of a budget crisis and money is tight,” Stringer said. “But what I don’t understand is why the city would cut services that businesses need to generate income — the very same income the city needs for its economic and fiscal recovery.”
He said de Blasio could prevent the trash-and-rodent problem in spite of the cuts.
“Own it,” the comptroller said, addressing Hizzoner. “Stop throwing your hands up because you had to make a small budget cut to the Sanitation Department, which is less of a cut than other agencies have taken. This is a poor excuse for bad management.”
He called for the city to use “big belly” receptacles and partnerships with local business improvement districts, among other steps.
Asked for comment, de Blasio’s office pointed to a Monday interview on NY1 in which the mayor denied the city has a trash problem.
“We have some problems, for sure,” he said. “I don’t think anyone who keeps saying that the state of city’s in such a dire state — I don’t see that. And I travel around all the time.”
But at the news conference, the head of the 125th Street Business Improvement District echoed Stringer’s remarks. “We can’t live like this just because the city [made cuts],” said Barbara Askins, adding her group is doing daily trash pickups.