Homicides and shootings on the rise, including in Times Square, surprise knife attacks or hitting on the subway. Crime skyrocketed in New York and became a central issue in the campaign to elect a new mayor to be decided at the end of June.
Some 505 people were shot dead in the largest American city so far this year, the highest number in a decade, according to police figures. There have been 146 murders, against 104 in the same period of 2019 and 115 in 2020.
The rise in violence began in the summer of 2020, after the initial months of confinement due to the pandemic that left more than 30,000 dead in New York, when gun violence fell to its lowest level in six decades.
Experts say that confinement, unemployment and inactivity largely explain these figures, far from the numbers in the 1980s and 1990s, when the city sometimes had 2,000 homicides a year.
– “I’m afraid for my daughter” –
The metro has also been the scene of violence. In the latest incidents, five people were stabbed, stabbed in the face or beaten Friday in wagons or stations.
“Violence is clearly on the rise … and the 2020 rise risks continuing into 2021,” John Pfaff, professor of criminal law at Fordham Law School, told AFP.
“The daily life that occupies people and keeps them out of crime is closed. There is enormous economic uncertainty, great emotional stress … All of this contributes to violence, which is self-perpetuating,” he added.
“Have they been on the subway? Because I’ve been, and I was scared (…) I don’t tell my daughter to ride the subway, because I’m scared for my daughter,” Governor Andrew Cuomo, the mayor’s rival, said recently. Bill de Blasio, whom he accuses of not fighting crime hard enough, although both are Democrats.
According to the NYPD, there have been at least 300 attacks on the subway this year compared to 380 at this point in 2020. But this year in the wake of the pandemic there are three million fewer riders.
Pat Foye, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), in charge of the subway, assures that “an immediate injection of police officers is required on the platforms and in wagons.”
But the mayor denies it, says that the issue is politicized and recalls that there are 600 more police officers monitoring the stations since February.
“The leadership of the MTA fuels fear in people (…) I have ridden the subway. So many people in my life ride the subway all the time. They are overwhelmingly safe,” he said a few days ago.
He assured that as of May 17, when the subway operates 24 hours a day again, as before the pandemic, the higher frequentation will bring more security.
– Security, on the political agenda –
On Saturday, May 8, two passersby and a four-year-old girl were shot and wounded in the afternoon in Times Square, for unknown reasons.
Several Democratic mayoral candidates such as the former president Andrew Yang, the president of Brooklyn and former police officer Eric Adams or Raymond McGuire, a former Wall Street banker, immediately went to Times Square to promise to improve security if they are elected.
The issue came to the fore in the New York mayoral election campaign shortly after the Democratic primary on June 22. The polls must designate the winner of the municipal election in November, as Republicans are extremely unpopular in New York.
And the issue came up again in the first (virtual) debate of the Democratic primary on Thursday night.
“Defunding the police is the wrong approach for New York City,” said Yang, a moderate.
“Security is not synonymous with police,” said Dianne Morales, further to the left, after recalling that the NYPD is the main force in the country with 35,000 agents.
Some Republicans like Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson portray New York as an extremely dangerous city, but Democrats call for relativizing episodes of violence.
Susan Kang, a professor at John Jay College School of Criminal Justice, said homicide and shooting numbers are still low, even if they are on the rise.
“I still believe that it is quite safe to live in New York (…) I do not hear anyone around me say ‘I do not feel safe’. There is a political attempt to guide the discussion,” he said.
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