130% increase in shootings in June: New York police deplored an increase in crime on Monday, which they attributed in part to the climate created by anti-racist demonstrations. This risks fueling the controversy over the police reforms in progress.
Among the reasons for this increase, New York police officials cited the premature release of inmates for fear of coronavirus infection in prisons, the closure of courts or, according to Chief Terence Monahan, “tremendous animosity against the police in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, which has “shattered the morale” of officers.
The increase in shootings – +130% in June 2020 compared to June 2019 – had already been pointed out by the New York police in recent weeks. The July 4 holiday weekend confirmed the trend: 45 shootings and 11 deaths recorded over three days, according to the police, compared to 16 shootings over this period in 2019.
Mr. Monahan also denounced a new “crazy” municipal law, which according to him now allows to charge any police officer who maintains a suspect on the ground by pressing on his chest.
“Very serious situation”
George Floyd was killed on May 25 by a white police officer who held his knee to his neck for nearly nine minutes as the black man repeated he couldn’t breathe.
New York’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio called the rise in shootings – as crime has been steadily declining in New York since the 1990s – a “very serious situation”.
We are feeling the effects of people locked up for months.
Bill de BlasioMayor of New York
But he, who publicly supported the protesters, mainly cited the pandemic as an explanation. “We are feeling the effects of people locked up for months, of economic activity which has not yet fully resumed”, he declared during a press briefing, also describing the closure of the courts as “a problem central”.
This resurgence of shootings risks fueling controversy over police reforms – and in particular the reduction of police budgets – undertaken in several metropolises run by Democrats, such as New York, Chicago or Seattle, to respond to these anti-racist demonstrations. unprecedented since the 1960s.
President Donald Trump has recently multiplied tweets to denounce these reforms and the Democratic mayors of these cities, again on Monday believing that New York and Chicago “protect criminals”.
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