NEW YORK CITY, NY – With the recent spike a violent crime in New York City, specifically shooting incidents, Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted on April 7th that “New Yorkers don’t live in fear.”
Yet in a recent report coming from the New York Daily News, locals within New York City aren’t really aligning with Mayor de Blasio’s recent proclamation.
‘Is there an actual plan?’ New Yorkers rip De Blasio for saying residents ‘don’t live in fear’ amid crime spike https://t.co/AfxPTMzYrz They actually expect Di Blasio to have a plan?
— Richard Holcroft (@CoastGuy02) April 8, 2021
There have been some concerning trends a violent crime in New York City as of late, which mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to address on April 7th. When the mayor was posed with the notion of whether or not he believed New Yorkers were “living in fear” due to these alarming trends, he stated the following:
“I do not believe New Yorkers are living in fear. It’s just not who we are. I believe there are some real issues we have to address…but New Yorkers don’t live in fear. They keep moving forward. I really believe that.”
Those sentiments shared by the New York City mayor, despite them likely being well intentioned, didn’t resonate with some of the locals. For instance, 67-year-old Marlene Alam, who’s resided in the Flatbush area for roughly six decades, referred to that notion made by Mayor de Blasio as “bullshit”:
“That’s bullshit. I got attacked twice on a train…I have a lot to tell de Blasio. Tell him to come to East 21st Street and Courtelyou Road around 11:00 p.m.; people walking around here with mental illnesses. They’re on goddam crack. They’re beating up senior citizens. It’s crazy.”
A 32-year-old mother of three young girls, one of which was the five-year-old girl that was grazed by a stray bullet on April 5th while she was standing outside their home, is also not at all entertained by the rhetoric spun by Mayor de Blasio:
“I don’t have any interest in politicians because what they say is only for show. It seems like an empty statement. He’s not really saying anything.
“What his real plan. Is there an actual plan? Is there any plan at all? I don’t really feel safe with shots going off in broad daylight… You don’t know where they’re coming from, and you don’t know where the guns are coming from.”
When comparing data from March of 2020 versus March of 2021, there was an overall increase in crime by 2.4%.
While that may not be that alarming of an increased figure, that’s a representation of crime across the board. When isolating instances of murder, there has been a 36% increase in said offenses when comparing March of 2020 to March of 2021.
In terms of shooting incidents citywide, there has been a 76.8% increase of reported incidents during that same aforementioned time frame comparison.
Another local, Fatoumata Diallo, says that the current state of the city compels one to watch their back:
“You have to watch your back. I feel more nervous, because anything can happen. People have guns, they get upset, they get intoxicated. You don’t know exactly what they’re doing.”
During the same press conference where Mayor de Blasio shared the comments of New Yorkers not “living in fear,” the mayor was asked why he wasn’t taking the time to visit communities that have been most impacted by violent crime and reiterating a message that said violence will not be tolerated.
In response to said inquiry, Mayor de Blasio stated the following:
“It clearly won’t be tolerated because for years now we have been changing the whole reality of how we address crime and violence.”
It’s not really clear what Mayor de Blasio meant when he conveyed that officials have been “changing” how they “address crime and violence,” but it certainly can’t be bail reform that is sending that proverbial zero tolerance message.
Back in March, Law Enforcement Today shared a report regarding the blowback of bail reform within New York.
Here’s that previous report.
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NEW YORK CITY, NY – While in the midst of looming police reform slated for the NYPD, law enforcement unions are asking lawmakers to take another look at bail reform to address the rising violent crime within New York City.
Law Enforcement Unions Say Bail Reform To Blame For Spike In Violent Crimes As City Focuses On NYPD Reform https://t.co/MQlBNviX52 #NYC #Violence
— Paul Alejandrino (@thePaulReno) March 16, 2021
Family members of the victims of gun violence stood beside representatives of law enforcement unions earlier in March to address rising violent crime within New York City.
Brandon Hendricks and Shamoya McKenzie are among the young victims of senseless gun violence in New York City – which their mothers shared their heartache of losing their children at such young ages.
Eve Hendricks spoke about her 17-year-old son’s passing, who was a rising basketball star who was slated to play ball at St. John’s University in the fall of 2020, but was killed on June 29th while attending a friend’s birthday barbecue party:
“My son deserved to live, deserved to live his dreams.”
The mother of Shamoya, Nadine McKenzie, recollected the murder of her 13-year-old daughter who was killed on December 31st of 2016 while she was coming home from basketball practice:
“Shamoya was just 13 years old and, we were coming from basketball practice…she got shot by a stray bullet.”
Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, pointed the proverbial finger to bail reform, saying that there needs to be “legislation that will permit judges to keep criminals carrying illegal guns in custody.”
While police unions are pushing to have lawmakers review bail reform, details regarding the second phase of reforms slated for the NYPD were announced on March 12th.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, outlined the key areas associated with the reforms, which include decriminalization of poverty, increased transparency & accountability, and what was coined as community representation.
The aspect related to community representation refers to NYPD officers actually living in the city which they serve.
During the recent press conference in relation to rising gun violence in the city, PBA President Patrick Lynch explained that only 60% of NYPD officers actually reside in New York City.
When explaining as to why that is the case, Lynch stated that many NYPD officers simply cannot afford to live in New York City:
“Sixty percent of our members live in the confines of New York City. Why do they move out? Because they can’t afford to live in the city that we serve.”
Considering that police reform within the NYPD is inevitable in order to abide by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order delivered during the summer of 2020 (which mandates that police departments must adopt reforms by April 1st, 2021), DiGiacomo says the unions would like a “seat at the table” to discuss the upcoming reforms.
Apparently, police unions have yet to be invited to this proverbial “seat at the table” – which PBA President Lynch believes is something that is long overdue:
“Let’s have the discussion, a real discussion. Stop demonizing us for the job that we do.”
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