FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 25, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 21
NYPD’s May report shows plunge in overall
crime, but spikes in murders and shootings
BY TODD MAISEL
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Aft er weeks of criticism and demonstrations,
Progressive Jackson Heights councilman ‘miff ed’
after Democratic Socialists rally at his home
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Jackson Heights is no stranger to protests
and rallies, so it was no surprise that
Black Lives Matter has marched through
the neighborhood several times following
the police-involved killing of George
Floyd.
On Th ursday, what appeared to be
a BLM rally turned into a protest by
members of the Democratic Socialists of
America with a surprising target.
A group of more than a hundred protesters
broke away from a Travers Park
rally and made their way several blocks
away to the home of Councilman Daniel
Dromm, demanding he do more to
defund the NYPD during the upcoming
budget negotiations between the City
Council and the de Blasio administration.
“I wouldn’t say they were dangerous, but
they were threatening,” Dromm told QNS.
“Th ey stood outside my building and
chanted, ‘If you don’t come
down, we’re coming up.’ I
knew they weren’t constituents
of mine because they
were calling me Daniel. In
this neighborhood, everyone
calls me Danny.”
The most incongruous
aspect to the target
of the protest, Dromm
said, is that he has been
leading them since the
early 1990s, not targeted
by them. Dromm is
a pioneer of the LGBT
rights movement
in Queens; he organized
the fi rst Queens
LGBT Pride Parade
and Festival. He has
been at the forefront of the criminal justice
reform movement, but as Chair of the
Council’s Finance Committee, Dromm
has felt pressure to defund the NYPD.
He was more than surprised to learn
that while they carried BLM banners
and signs, this protest was led by members
of the Democratic Socialists of
America.
“Two of them actually got into my
building, came up to the second fl oor,
and got to my door and were
banging on it as the chants
continued outside but
before a porter got rid
of them they slipped
a DSA-NYC action
fl ier under my door,”
Dromm said. “Th ese
folks were DSA.”
The ultra-left
wing of the progressive
movement
in western
Queens had targeted
an elected offi cial whose own political
actions align closely with the protestors.
On police reform alone, Dromm has
been a tireless advocate to reform stopand
frisk policies, end solitary confi nement
and bring transparency to the Rikers
Island jail complex.
“I believe this protest was totally inappropriate,
violated my privacy, and was
probably illegal,” Dromm said. “In many
ways, I agree with the protesters’ agenda,
so I am miff ed at why they would choose
to protest an ally. Th e protest was misguided
and cost the Democratic Socialists
validity in the eyes of most of my constituents.”
Dromm called on Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a star in the
DSA movement, to condemn the protest
but so far only Brooklyn state Senator
Julia Salazar, another DSA boldface name,
has questioned the logic of protesting at
Dromm’s home.
“I don’t think it’s strategic or constructive
to aggressively knock on the door
of CM Dromm,” Salazar tweeted. “But
I won’t endeavor to speak for the DSA’s
66,000+ members, and a few individuals
likewise don’t represent the whole decentralized
org.”
the NYPD announced a bit of good
news on June 18: Overall crime dropped
in May by 21.2 percent, and it’s now down
for the year by 2.5 percent.
Th e NYPD reported 35,651 major
crimes, compared with 34,773 the year
before.
Th e drop is driven by decreases in the
numbers of robberies, assaults and grand
larcenies since the COVID-19 outbreak
in mid-March. But the department continues
to be troubled by a startling spike
in murders and shootings during the fi rst
fi ve months of 2020.
According to the May crime statistics
report, homicides were up 79.1 percent,
and shootings also spiked by 64 percent.
Offi cials blame most of the increase on
gang related violence that has plagued
all boroughs this year – even during the
height of the COVID-19 crisis. Th ere were
100 shootings compared with 61 last year,
and 34 homicides in May compared with
only 19 the years before.
Also of concern is an increase in burglaries
that jumped 34 percent, from
1,154 this year compared with 861 last
year. Offi cials are expecting burglaries
to rise during June as many break-ins
occurred during looting and vandalism
that coincided with the George Floyd protests
earlier in the month.
Offi cials also worried that stores which
have been closed for months during the
COVID-19 pandemic may have also been
burglary victims without having reported
it. Th e May report revealed there were
6,362 major crimes as opposed to 8,075
the years before. Crime was down for
every borough including transit and the
housing bureau. In just one month, there
was a 29 percent decrease in robberies, an
18 percent decrease in felony assaults and
43 percent decrease in grand larcenies.
Rapes also dropped in May by 33.7
percent, with 108 reported rapes compared
to 163 last year. Police offi cials say
they believe rape continues to be under
reported.
Th ough the department was hit hard by
the pandemic, sick reports have begun to
return to normal levels of approximately 3
percent of the 36,000-member uniformed
force. Th e NYPD lost 45 members of service
who have died due to coronavirus-related
illness, including three-star Chief of
Transportation William Morris.
Offi cials say this has been some of the
most challenging times for the department
as they deal with daily demonstrations
and small groups of looters and vandals
that have plagued parts of the city
and businesses located in those areas.
Most of that looting has fi nally abated
aft er two weeks of upheaval. Some of
the more pronounced looting occurred
in Soho section of Manhattan and in
the Fordham Road section of the Bronx.
Dozens of stores were damaged and burglarized
by looters who were using the
protests to camoufl age their crimes.
Several stores, including the Leica camera
shop on Broadway in Soho, lost hundreds
of thousands of dollars’ worth of
merchandise. Some of those cameras
appeared on eBay and other platforms
the very next day, law enforcement sources
said.
“I am proud of our police offi cers who
have met the challenges of these trying
times with remarkable fortitude and fairness,”
said Police Commissioner Dermot
Shea. “Th eir continuing success in simultaneously
fi ghting crime, reinforcing the
best public health practices and facilitating
peaceful protest refl ects the values of
the New York City Police Department and
the high standards of our profession.”
Th e department also announced the
continuation of the Summer All-Out program
that moves hundreds of additional
offi cers into key areas of the city that
become busier during the summer. Th e
additional manpower covers 10 neighborhoods
that experience an uptick in crime
during the summer.
In addition, NYPD offi cers continue to
remind New Yorkers about the importance
of following the best public health
guidelines during the COVID-19 outbreak,
though offi cers are refraining to
penalize New Yorker’s during the crisis,
and instead are distributing masks to the
public.
Th e NYPD is now facing cuts to their
budget that threaten to decrease manpower
in the city. City Council members
are considering slashing the NYPD budget
by a billion dollars and shift ing those
resources to youth and education programs.
QNS fi le photo
Photo by Todd Maisel
/WWW.QNS.COM
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