Shootings Continue to Skyrocket, Mayor Continues to Blame Everyone but Himself

By Yehudit Garmaise

     Shootings have skyrocketed in New York City by more than 68% so far in 2021, according to new NYPD crime statistics, and Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to point the finger at everyone but himself.

     Usually, when faced with questions on the city’s rising crime rate, the mayor lays the blame on the "dislocations of the pandemic," but yesterday, the mayor pointed to the proliferation of guns that come in from other states and the state’s parole system, which does not provide training or schooling for criminals after they are released from jail.

     “So we need Congress to act.”

     “We are doing everything we can here in this city, but we need help: from the federal government, we need help from the state government,” the mayor said. “We cannot do it alone.”

    As for what he is doing to reduce crime within the city, the mayor continues to put his faith in “community-based policing,” and the city’s funds in costly programs, such as “Cure Violence,” which may sound nice, but neither approach appear to do anything at all to reduce crime.

       Since the start of 2021, for instance, the city has seen 602 shooting incidents, with 687 victims wounded or killed, CompStat figures reveal, showing a sharp surge from last year at this time, when the NYPD 358 shootings that struck 409 people by early June.

     “The plan we put forward: moving our cops to the right places, focusing on the top 100 blocks where the violence has occurred,” the mayor said. “The new cops coming out of police academy: 850 last month, 600 this month, using that new capacity the right way.”

    The mayor also spoke about the need for the NYPD to keep up their good work of getting guns off the streets and for the city’s courts “to open up and run at full strength so there are real consequences.” 

   When a reporter alluded to the “Giuliani-style of policing,” of the past, which many remember as a time in which New York City was safer and more ordered, the mayor called the mayoral terms of Andrew Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg as "the bad old days" because of Stop and Frisk.

    The best years of fighting crime in New York City, “were the six years before the pandemic when crime went down six years in a row, the police and community had better relationships, and the mayor instituted “a constant series of reforms.”

    “We can get back to that,” the mayor said, without saying exactly what might actually work. “We will stop this gun violence. We will turn the corner.”