FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 15, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 30
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Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
While Mayor Adams’ administration is taking steps to combat the city’s rising crime rate, substantial change
will take time.
Story: Permanent tow truck stationed within Queens’
Community Board 5 to curb parking violations
Summary: After Councilman Robert Holden requested
increased police presence in the district to curb traffi c
and parking violations, NYPD added a permanent tow
truck in Community Board 5 to remove illegally parked
cars on crosswalks, sidewalks, in front of hydrants and
in other places that could potentially create a hazard.
Reach: 183,032 (as of 04/11/22)
The long crime fi ght
In his fi rst three months in offi ce, Mayor Eric
Adams has compared the surge of gun violence in
New York City to a roaring river fl ooding the town.
“Th e sea of violence comes from many rivers.
We must dam every river that feeds this greater
crisis,” Adams said back in January when he
announced his plan to tackle gun violence,
including the introduction of new NYPD teams
dedicated to locking up gun-toting criminals.
Th e eff ort appears to be starting to bear fruit.
In announcing the March crime statistics on
April 6, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell
reported “record numbers” of arrests during
the month, including 410 collars specifi cally for
gun-related off enses.
Still, the NYPD reported an overall major
crime increase of 36.5% — the third straight
month with a crime spike of 30% or higher.
Murders and rapes dropped, but shootings were
still up 13.5% — and property crimes such as
robbery, grand larceny and burglary were each
up more than 40%.
Murders and shootings make the headlines
and pose the most lethal threat to New York
City’s safety. But property crimes are a serious
problem that, left unabated, threatens the longterm
stability and security of the city.
People need to feel safe walking on the street
or leaving their home unattended for a few
hours. Sewell and Adams have both vowed to
restore that sense of security through increased
NYPD eff orts to tackle crime, but they also insist
that the state revisit some of the bail and other
criminal justice reforms enacted in recent years.
“It’s clear we are confronting a perception
among criminals that there are no consequences
even for serious crime,” Sewell said on April
7. “We need tangible changes with a balanced
system that puts victims fi rst. It must be fair, but
it must fi rst and foremost favor the people it was
designed to safeguard and protect.”
As it has been said before, reforming the
reform doesn’t mean killing the reform entirely.
Th e bail reform changes enacted in 2020 were
necessary to close a major disparity in the
criminal justice system, allowing nonviolent
off enders and defendants to be set free aft er arrest
rather than confi ned with violent criminals
in jails.
But it is clear the system is fl awed, and those
fl aws — combined with the economic and
mental trauma infl icted during the COVID-19
pandemic — has undoubtedly contributed to
New York City’s crime problem.
Changing the criminal justice system for
the better in concert with bolstering the city’s
economy and supporting the NYPD’s crimefi
ghting eff orts are the way in which this crime
spike will be turned back. No one, however,
should expect substantial change in weeks or
months or even years.
New York is in it for the long haul. Th e river is
still roaring. And the faster we build the dam together,
the quicker the fl ood of violence will end.
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