RAISING ALARM ON CRIME
NYPD: Slays, shootings up
The NYPD highlighted on Friday just how crime-ridden the city is, releasing grim stats that it said showed how bad guys no longer fear getting caught.
Shootings surged 13.4% citywide in July compared with the same month last year, and murders increased an even more alarming 34.3%, the department reported in a press release. The overall rate of major crimes rose 30.5%, driven in part by a 40.6% surge in grand larcenies.
Noting the bleak figures, an astounded Queens cop said, “Usually, they are spinning the numbers to make the bad look good.”
A Manhattan cop asked sarcastically, “Why doesn’t the Police Department just raise the white flag?”
The new stats emerged amid Mayor Adams’ battle to persuade Albany lawmakers to roll back the state’s 2019 bail-reform law.
As part of that effort, the NYPD this week released a “Worst of the Worst” list of repeat offenders. At the top of the ranking was an excon who had racked up 101 arrests, including 88 busts since the bail reform took effect in 2020.
“Everyone who lives, works and visits here deserves to be safe, and the members of the NYPD will tolerate nothing less — but we cannot do it alone,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement Friday.
“When violent criminals are willing to carry illegal guns on our streets and brazenly shoot at innocent people, they must face real consequences.”
A veteran cop said of Friday’s press release, “We don’t have enough cops, and the criminals are getting right back out onto the street and committing crimes.”
Sources told The Post that six people were wounded by gunfire in six incidents across the city in fewer than 12 hours Friday, beginning shortly after midnight.