BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Violent crime in New York
City has been trending downwards
in recent weeks, marking
a reversal of a worrying
uptick from previous months.
Throughout the month of
July, the Five Boroughs saw
29 murders and 158 shooting
incidents, which were both
signifi cantly lower than the
same month in 2020, which
saw 57 killings and 243 incidents
of gun violence — making
a decline of 49 percent and
35 percent, respectively.
If the 29 murders in July
2021 occur every month for a
calendar year, that would represent
348 killings — the seventh
lowest amount for a year
since 1960.
“The month of July was
always one of the toughest
months every year,” Mayor de
Blasio said at a press conference.
“The middle of the summer
— tough, tough time. And
yet, the NYPD rose to the challenge,
COURIER L 10 IFE, AUGUST 13-19, 2021
fought back gun violence.
More to do, but real evidence
of fi ghting it back.”
The positive news comes
after the month of June, which
also saw a decline in violent
crime over the previous year,
with 33 murders and 165 shooting
incidents — representing
a 23.3 percent and 19.5 percent
decline from June 2020, respectively.
“This is now two months
in a row, and I take a lot of
positive in that,” Police Commissioner
Dermot Shea said.
“Two months in a row that
we’re driving the violence
down in New York City.”
Seeing a reversal of the
trend toward greater violent
crime provides a much-needed
sigh of relief from New Yorkers
worried about public safety.
Last year, many city-dwellers
were alarmed at a murder
rate that far exceeded the
norm of the proceeding decade
— as 2020 saw 462 murders
in the Five Boroughs,
compared with an average of
just 362 killings between 2011
and 2020.
Troublingly, the beginning
of 2021 appeared as though
it would see a similar rise in
murders, as 213 were killed
in the fi rst six months of the
year.
The year-and-a-half rise coincided
with the city’s mayoral
election, which found violent
crime to be among the most
talked-about issues among
both candidates and voters.
Nearly half of all voters
chose “crime or violence” as
their main concern in a NY1
public opinion poll from May,
which outpaced “affordable
housing” at 31 percent and the
pandemic at 30 percent.
Ultimately, Brooklyn Borough
President Eric Adams,
a former police offi cer, won
the Democratic nomination
largely by rejecting the “Defund
the Police” movement
and harping on the need to increase
public safety, including
by bringing back the NYPD’s
controversial Anti-Crime
Unit.
“We should not throw out
the baby with the bathwater.
Having a good Anti-Crime
team will continue to take
guns off the streets,” Adams
told WNYC/Gothamist and
THE CITY. “We can do it right,
we’ll get it right, and we’ll
make sure our city is safe.”
Now, though, violent crime
is trending back downward.
In Brooklyn, 8 people were
murdered between July 4 and
Aug. 1, compared with 21 during
the same timeframe last
year, according to NYPD statistics.
During that same time,
the Police Department recorded
42 shooting incidents,
compared with 112 the previous
year — marking a 62.5 percent
decline.
“We had real challenges,
but we also saw some extraordinary
successes by the NYPD,
and through the cooperation
of the NYPD and community,
and through excellent efforts
at the grassroots level to stop
violence,” de Blasio said.
Rumors of NY’s demise
were greatly exaggerated
Violent crime falls in city, reversing a trend
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