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New York shootings increased 330% last week compared to the same time last year.
NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea said all he wanted for Christmas were laws that weren’t “wrong” so he could get guns off the streets.
In addition to the huge increase in the number of shooting incidents, the city recorded a 425% increase in the number of gunshot fatalities in the past seven days compared to 2019.
Overall, there were 27% more gun busts in 2020, but Shea says his men are overwhelmed, underfunded, and plagued by “bogus” laws.
New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Dermot Shea speaks at a press conference earlier this year. Shea said all he wanted for Christmas were laws that weren’t “wrong” so he could get guns off the streets.
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“It’s Christmas, so I’m going to ask for one thing under the Christmas tree,” Shea told the New York Post. “We need to take guns seriously.”
Shea believes that while tough in theory, the city’s gun laws are made weak by the loose criminal justice system that sends hardened gangsters back to the streets too quickly.
“From a police perspective, we’re spending a lot of our resources on this,” Shea said. “Everyone in the criminal justice system knows this.
In particular, the commissioner criticized lawyers and judges who let the hard work of his officers go to waste.
He told the Post: “Prosecutors, judges have discretion – maybe they want to give the person a second chance, maybe they will give him supervised release.
But listen, if you give them supervised release, transparency isn’t just good for the police department. Transparency is good for all parts of the criminal justice system.
“Let’s have some data on the number of people on probation.
“How many face-to-face meetings there have been, who goes to school, who has a job. None of this exists.
Police ballistic markers stand next to a pram at a crime scene in Brooklyn where a one-year-old was shot on July 13, 2020 in New York City
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It comes as shootings in the city have doubled from the previous year, reaching their worst levels in 14 years.
While much of this was due to the proliferation of gangs, Shea said Mayor Bill de Blasio’s surrender to the Black Lives Matter crowd over the police “defunding” had not helped.
“We’ve had a lot less cops in some of these areas that need them the most. It is a fact, and it certainly contributed to some of the crimes, ”he said.
The commissioner said the NYPD was just one part of a larger criminal justice system that must all work together to curb violence.
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