ANTI-POLICE RHETORIC AND FEAR OF BEING PROSECUTED CAUSES COPS TO MAKE FEWER ARRESTS

Drop in weekly arrests outpaces increase in NYC crime 

 

By Larry Celona, Tina Moore and Bruce Golding

 

New York Post

May 31, 2021

 

 

Serious crime spiked across most major categories amid another plunge in arrests last week, NYPD statistics showed Monday — and sources said the bloodshed would have been even worse if not for the lousy weekend weather.

And amid a doubling of incidents in the transit system and a more than fourfold skyrocketing of hate crimes, the only bright spots were drops in murders and burglaries.

“The rain this weekend saved the city. A lot of people weren’t outside. There were no barbecues,” said a veteran cop with two decades on the job.

Another veteran cop said that “the rain and the cold … kind of drives crime indoors.”

“But as the weather warms up, that will change,” the cop warned.

“The weather will always dictate crime except in the subway.”

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams — a leading Democratic contender to succeed outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio — warned that the city was “just days away from the start of the summer, which historically means that we will see a rise in crime — and we are already suffering from massive increases in violent incidents.”

“This is unacceptable,” said Adams, a former NYPD captain.

“Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe in our city. Public safety is the key to prosperity.”

Overall crime complaints increased 15.1 percent during the seven days that ended Sunday, compared to the same period last year, according to official CompStat figures.

There were spikes in five of the seven major categories of crime, the worst involving grand larcenies, which rose 39 percent, from 472 to 656.

Robberies also jumped 26.9 percent, from 212 to 269.

Meanwhile, arrests for serious crimes plummeted 20 percent, virtually twice last week’s decline of 10.2 percent.

Transit crimes surged 105.6 percent, from 18 to 37, and hate crimes multiplied 366.7 percent, from 3 to 14.

Shootings were up 43.5 percent, from 23 to 33, while the number of people hit by gunfire increased from 24 to 35, or 45.8 percent.

But those alarming figures actually represented an improvement over the previous week, when the numbers of shootings and victims rose by 72 and 92.6 percent, respectively.

“Weather is the only thing that will lower shootings — and even during a dreary, rainy week they still went up 44 percent,” a Brooklyn cop said.

“Maybe we will get real lucky and it will snow this summer.”

Gun arrests, however, plunged 42.4 percent, from 99 to 57, far outstripping the previous week’s 24 percent decline.

In an especially worrisome development, rapes were up 8.7 percent, from 23 to 25, reversing a 15.4 percent decrease a week a week.

The year-to-date increase in rapes was 2 percent.

Meanwhile, murders declined by more than half, from 13 to six.

The killings included that of a 37-year-old man who was found fatally stabbed in a Lower East Side skate park early Friday.

The victim, who was apparently killed with a homemade knife discarded nearby, had previously been involved in a January incident during which he attacked a 68-year-old man during a dispute over “pasta sauce,” police sources said.

Burglaries fell 21.3 percent, continuing a trend that has the category down 15.9 percent since the start of the year.