SCANDAL: The NYPD is manipulating their own crime data to push a narrative that bail reform is causing an uptick in crime. Read that again. "The NYPD's repeated claims of rising crime are a story of their own making." Completely inconsistent w/ reality. gothamist.com/news/public-de…
First, lets start w/ what we all agree on: "Mayor de Blasio & Police Commissioner Shea announced that murders, rapes, & hate crimes were all down in February compared to this time last year. " NYPD of course happy to claim credit for that. Nothing to do w/ bail reform. Right.
But NYPD claims "serious crimes overall were up by 22%" compared w/ same period last yr. First, this is misleading. Beyond problems w/ conclusions based on short-term trends, "serious crime" rates have been in decline since September. Before & after bail reform. NYPD's own data: 
Second, all public defender offices in the city ran their data. NYPD is lying. For example, even as grand theft auto complaints skyrocketed more than 60%, public defender collective caseloads w/ that charge actually *decreased 9%. What does this mean? Why this discrepancy?
"The NYPD has been up-charging" meaning charging arrests that are really misdemeanors as serious felonies. When these cases make it to a DA, "prosecutors reject the charges that the NYPD are touting bc they know they cannot stand up to even the most cursory legal scrutiny."
"Within weeks of the new laws taking effect, New York's Republicans, police leaders, tabloids, and bail bondsmen all linked the reforms to a major crime spree.
Public defenders: Actually a 20% decrease in complaints in the first 2 months of the year. And 17% drop in arrests.
Public defenders: Actually a 20% decrease in complaints in the first 2 months of the year. And 17% drop in arrests.
Brooklyn DA rejected argument that he could determine any causation between bail & crime this early. City Council sent a scathing letter to NYPD head slamming the spreading of "false narratives." Daily News Editorial Board similarly slammed Commissioner: nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edi…
Bipartisan @verainstitute came out with a powerful report slamming the inaccuracy & fearmongering of Mayor de Blasio & his police chief: “His selective use of shortrun statistics doesn’t support this statement.” vera.org/publications/d…
Yet our self-titled "progressive" @NYCMayor continues not just to support NYPD but peddle their proven lies: "There’s a direct correlation to the change in the law & we need to address it & we will address it." He's pushing for changes that would still have jailed Kalief Browder.
It's all just so cynical. Just today, as Mayor de Blasio was claiming a false "crime spike" to undo bail reform, he was on Twitter touting "record low" crime rates as he feigned outrage over routine police abuse that just happened to get caught on camera.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is the most significant threat to pretrial & racial justice in New York State today. Not police. Not prosecutors. Not Trump-supporting GOP. Not white supremacists. "Progressive" Mayor de Blasio. He gives all of those hateful forces cover of false legitimacy.
MORE: Turns out, NYPD manipulating data is nothing new. From a 2013 NYPD audit: "A close review of the NYPD's statistics & analysis demonstrate that the misclassifications of reports may have an appreciable effect on certain reported crime rates." Source: nyc.gov/html/nypd/down…
EVEN MORE: A 2012 survey of nearly 2,000 retired officers found that the manipulation of crime reports has long been part of the culture of the New York Police Department. nytimes.com/2012/06/29/nyr…
