Edited by: TJVNews.com

If life weren’t difficult enough for the average New York City resident in the aftermath of a two-year pandemic that crippled the city’s economy and wrought havoc in families and communities across the five boroughs, it has now been reported that according to data collected by the New York Police Department (NYPD), major crimes have skyrocketed 37% so far this year.

The New York Post reported that these crimes were driven by robberies, auto thefts, burglaries and grand larcenies.

The statistics as of Sunday reveal that grand larceny in the Big Apple has shot up 49% so far this year over last year — from 18,058 to 26,908. Rates of auto theft have escalated by 46.2%, from 4,855 to 7,100, as was reported by the Post.

Robbery is up 39.2%, from 6,530 to 9,091, and burglaries increased by 32.9%, from 6,251 to 8,305, the numbers show, according to the paper. Felonious assault rose by 18.6% and rapes saw an 11% increase so far this year over 2021.

According to a June 3rd crime statistics report that was produced by the NYPD, it said that   the overall index crime in New York City increased by 27.8% in May 2022 compared with May 2021 (10,414 v. 8,149). Each of the seven major index crime categories saw increases, driven by a 42.1% increase in grand larceny (4,116 v. 2,897); a 28.3% rise in burglary (1,239 v. 966); and a 26.2% increase in robbery (1,506 v. 1,193).

“We have pointed every resource we have at reducing gun violence in this city. We have seen seven straight weeks of shootings going down – and that is not a coincidence,” said Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell. “We are using an intelligence-led approach and gun arrests are being made in numbers we haven’t seen in almost 30 years, but we understand that we have to be relentless because lives depend on it.”

Wikipedia reported that as of April 2022, New York City recorded a 42.7% increase in major reported crimes compared to the same period in 2021, according to the NYPD. That includes a 46.7% increase in robberies, a 54% spike in grand larceny incidents and a 14.9% jump in rapes. Murder rates have also increased 9.2% over the last two years. In 2022, a poll revealed that 75% of New Yorkers exhibit a climate of fear whereby they may be victims of a violent crime at any given time in the city.

Speaking to the Post, Joseph Giacalone, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor and a former NYPD sergeant said, “This is going to probably be a record year for increasing crime in New York City.”

He added that, “You have a short-staffed NYPD and you still have policies that go against police work” and called the eye popping increase in car thefts “something right out of the 1990s.”

Murders were down 5.6% so far this year over the same period in 2021, from 252 to 238, as was reported by the Post. The number of people shot fell by 7.3%, from 974 to 903, the data shows. Shooting incidents were down 10.3 % this year, 747 compared to 833.

“Shootings were up big last week, they took a break this week,” Giacolone said, as was reported by the Post. “That’s good news, but that could all change with one BBQ in Brooklyn.”

A Manhattan detective with two decades of service on the job told the Post that he was in agreement with Giacolone’s assessment of the dismal crime picture in the Big Apple.

He told the Post that, “There’s going to be a heat wave. The shootings will get worse. We don’t have enough manpower to compete with all the crime that’s going on.”

NYPD crime stats also reveal that crime on New York City subways is also significantly escalating. The Post reported that the six major crime categories were up 55.5% in transit so far in 2022 with 1,244 crimes as compared to 800 in the same period of 2021, the data show.

The spike was led by a 250% jump in rapes from two at this point last year and seven so far in 2022, according to the Post report.

Last week, the Jewish Voice reported that the former commissioner of New York City’s police force also issued a warning of coming ‘crisis’ level shortages in the police department ranks.

As reported by the NY Post, Bill Bratton issued the downbeat forecast, saying that record NYPD retirements and resignations and the movement to defund the police will lead to dire staff shortages.

In a radio interview on WABC’s “The Cats Roundtable”, Bratton pointed to the NYC budget finalized recently by the city council and Mayor Eric Adams, which modestly increases police funding but does not add more NYPD staff.  “Mayor Adams was not able to get an increase in the size of the department with the City Council. He didn’t try to get an increase because he knew that the progressive wing of that City Council, which is 32 of its 51 members, under no circumstance would support more money for more cops,” Bratton said, referring to the body’s Progressive Caucus.

“So, effectively, the department is growing smaller, not getting larger,” Bratton told host John Catsimatidis. “You can offset that with the use of overtime, but the overtime becomes a problem because some officers will make so much from overtime this year that a lot of them are going to retire next year because their pension is based on their last couple of years of salary plus overtime.”

A whopping 520 police officers have resigned and more than 1,000 have retired just as of May 31, according to NYPD pension statistics obtained by the Post.

Last month, the Post reported that 1,596 officers were resigning or retiring in 2022 – making it the biggest exodus since the data was collected. The departures show a 38% increase compared to the same period in 2021, when 1,159 cops stepped down, and a 46% increase compared to the same time frame in 2020, when 1,092 left the department.

Bratton, who headed the NYPD twice as well as police departments in Boston and Los Angeles, predicted that NYC cops will continue to drop out because “they’re going to be very frustrated with the way things are going.”  He said this will lead to a long-term shortage of cops throughout the five boroughs.  “I predict a crisis in terms of manpower over the next several years, because this City Council just will not approve additional police officers,” he said.  “How quickly the progressive wing has turned on the Police Department,” Bratton lamented.  “They wanted more cops in 2014, because they understood the importance of it. Meanwhile, the cast of characters in the City Council today — I don’t know where they all came from — they will not support more police.”

As per the Post, Mayor Adams, himself a former NYPD captain, shrugged off the exodus of NYC’s finest, saying he’s not too concerned.  He insisted that it will be a “great opportunity to diversify” the police force.

In their June 3rd statement that was posted on their web site, the NYPD said:

“The reduction in shootings in May 2022 is part of a growing trend that reflects the NYPD’s work earlier this year with the rollout of new Neighborhood Safety Teams, which have seized 105 firearms and effected 115 gun arrests since their inception in mid-March. It also coincides with the NYPD’s continuing work to develop and investigate intelligence-based, long-term cases focused on the very few New Yorkers willing to pick up a gun and use it.

Investigators with the NYPD’s Gun Violence Suppression Division arrested 22 alleged members of a violent Bloods-affiliated crew in the Bronx – who used Drill Rap to amplify their alleged criminality. They are charged in a 65-count indictment with conspiracy to commit murder and other charges related to several shootings. The Gun Violence Suppression Division began in southern Brooklyn in December 2014, and has now expanded citywide. It is a sustained model for combatting gun crime and holding violent criminals accountable for their actions.

Also in May 2022, the NYPD’s Firearms Suppression Section – as well as the Ghost Gun Team of the department’s Criminal Intelligence Section – continued the important work of interdicting hundreds of illegal firearms flowing into New York City through the traditional “iron pipeline” and the increasingly exploited “plastic pipeline.”

These operations employ all the tools of the department’s precision-policing philosophy to keep New Yorkers safe, and they work to keep the focus of the criminal justice system where it belongs: on the victims.”

In light of the latest crime statistics, the Post reported that Mayor Eric Adams condemned the revolving-door treatment of those who commit crimes in the city. He said that “‘Catch, release repeat’ cannot be a criminal justice mantra,” according to the Post report.

At a City Hall press conference, Adams assigned blame for the rise in serious crimes, in large part, on  “a substantial number of the people who are doing burglaries, grand larcenies, robberies.”

Adams said, as was reported by the Post, “They are repeat offenders and if we don’t stop that flow, we’re going to have a harder time of getting these numbers under control.

He added that, “I cannot be clearer that we have created an atmosphere in the city, if not the country, that people who commit these crimes are not being held accountable and that sends a signal on the streets that ‘We can continue to commit these crimes.’”

At the news conference, Adams said that he had plans to discuss the crime issue with officials in order to squarely address the burgeoning dilemma.

He said, “The goal is this continuous battle of making sure dangerous people that are arrested are prosecuted, go through the criminal justice system and off our streets. It’s taking too long to sentence dangerous people. While they’re on our streets, they continue to commit crimes,” as was reported by the Post.

NBC News reported that the latest murder to take place in New York City occurred early on Tuesday.  A man was fatally shot in an ambush on the set of “Law & Order: Organized Crime” while working parking enforcement for the show in Brooklyn.

The 31-year-old victim was sitting in a car in the 200 block of North Henry Street in the Greenpoint neighborhood when he was attacked around 5:15 a.m., the New York City Police Department said, as was reported by NBC

A suspect opened the car door and fired, striking the victim in the face and neck, according to police. The victim was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead around 6 a.m., police said.

Wikipedia reported that during the 1990s, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) adopted CompStat, broken windows policing, and other strategies in a major effort to reduce crime. The resulting drop in crimes thereafter has been variously attributed to a number of factors, including the end of the crack epidemic, the increased incarceration rate nationwide, gentrification, an aging population, and the decline of lead poisoning in children.

However, crime rates, especially violent ones, has been on an increasing trend since the 2010s. Since 2017, murders in the city have been on an upward trend, according to the Wikipedia report. Murders in New York City surged in 2020 by 47% to 468 from 319 the year prior, one of the most significant increases in the city’s history. Crime rates in the city across the board further increased 5% in 2021, with murders also increasing to 488.

In related news, the New York Post also reported that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg finally dropped the controversial murder charge against bodega worker Jose Alba  — with his office conceding there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the case that sparked widespread outrage.

The Post reported that the DA’s office filed a motion in Manhattan Criminal Court to dismiss the case against the 61-year-old bodega worker after an investigation found it couldn’t prove the “defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”

Bragg and his office faced backlash after Alba was swiftly jailed and charged with fatally stabbing 35-year-old violent ex-con Austin Simon, who had attacked Alba inside the Hamilton Heights Grocery on July 1, according to the Post report.

The decision to drop the second-degree murder charge comes weeks after The Post highlighted Alba’s plight, which saw the hardworking bodega clerk initially held at Rikers Island on a whopping $250,000 bond.

“If it weren’t for the NY Post, Mr. Alba would still be in jail,” said Frank Garcia, chairman of the National Association of Latino State Chambers of Commerce.

(Sources: nypost.com, Wikipedia.org, nypd.com – Additional reporting by: Fern Sidman)