12 MARCH 11, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Striving for a safer city
Two months into the new year,
and it seems that the New York
Police Department has certainly
turned the corner on crime.
After a year marred by COVID-19
and a summer shooting surge that
had many wondering if the city
was going in reverse, the first two
months of 2021 show a dramatic decrease
in overall crime across the
five boroughs.
The NYPD touted the progress last
week, and the numbers do not lie.
Over the first 59 days of 2021, the
NYPD tallied 12,453 major index
crimes — down 23.6 percent from
the 16,294 serious felonies that occurred
the previous year.
Six of the seven major index crime
categories — murder, rape, robbery,
felony assault, burglary and grand
larceny — all fell. The lone major
crime that continues to increase is
auto thefts.
Within all the good news, of
course, comes the fact that shootings
are still a major problem for
America’s biggest city — though it’s
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There’s much for the NYPD to do to continue to keep the city safe, but the fi rst two months of 2021 show a
dramatic decrease in overall crime across the fi ve boroughs. Photo via Flickr
not nearly close to “the bad old days”
of the bullet-riddled 1980s and 1990s
that fearmongers claim are reappearing
in New York.
Shootings across the five boroughs
were up a stunning 76 percent,
from 44 in 2020 to 77 in 2021.
Yet that number represents the
sixth straight month-to-month decrease
in shooting incidents across
New York City.
The NYPD has beefed up its efforts
to crack down on gun violence
over recent months and is making
more gun arrests.
While the shooting increase
remains, it’s only a matter of time
before the NYPD’s efforts catch up
to the situation, and then the shootings
will start decreasing at an even
more steady rate.
What’s the verdict on all this? It’s
that the city is far from the crimeriddled
cesspool some might want
to believe it is. It isn’t, as Governor
Andrew Cuomo suggested last week,
“teetering” on the brink of despair.
There’s much for the NYPD to
do to continue to keep the city safe
— both from crime and from injustice.
Police must step up efforts,
for example, to battle crime in the
subways and to stop hate-filled bigots
from targeting, and attacking,
people because of their ethnicity.
But no one should conclude that
New York City is on the brink, and
lost to the criminals.
We must put aside the fear, follow
the facts, and have some confidence
as New Yorkers that our city is
safe.
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