My op-ed in the Daily News nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope…
In the last 28 days shootings have more than tripled (318 vs 97 compared to last year). Last week was even worse. If this is the new normal, 2021 will have over 4,100 shootings, a level not seen in well over 20 years.
In 2018 (the latest year with published data), 95.7% of shooting victims in New York City are Black or Hispanic. Just 4.3% of victims are white or Asian. When violence goes up, more Black and Hispanic men are shot.
Bit by bit, the blocks of public safety have been removed. Without legal authority and political backing to enforce existing laws, police have lost their “or else.” Rowdy kids now tell cops where they can go, and the cops comply.
It’s like a game of Jenga in which the wooden blocks of public safety are stacked into a tower. Each player in turn pulls out one block. The tower holds. But eventually, as more and more blocks are removed, one too many blocks is pulled and the entire tower comes tumbling down.
Elected officials have less to fear from hundreds more people being shot than an viral instance of real or perceived police misconduct. Without political and prosecutorial support for effective (though by no means perfect) policing, the shootings will continue.
In June the NYPD disbanded the “anti-crime” units that were responsible for half of all gun arrests. Last week cops made just 21 gun arrests, down 72% from same week of 2019. Mayor de Blasio stretches credulity when he claims this was the NYPD’s decision.
nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope…
nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope…
Enforcing gun laws is key. In 2013 and 2014, 40% of all the "disposed cases" for carrying an illegal gun in NYC, 2013-2014 ended up with some kind of jail or prison. In 2019 it was just 17%. Near-mandatory jail time for guns was a big reason NYC became less violence in the 90s.
Or take disorder on the subways, nothing legally prevents the NYPD from enforcing quality-of-life rules. But under Mayor deBlasio, enforcement ended. To that extent police are standing down, but not because they want to. They've been told to, often in the name of social justice.
Good policing is about changing people's behavior before they need to be arrested. To do that police need information, leadership, tactics, and the legal right to enforcement. Crime prevention is by nature pro-active. And that, of course, is the root of some police opposition.
Bit by bit the NYPD has seen their legal authority pre-empted by elected officials, primarily the mayor and district attorneys (to a lesser extent city council members) by directives not to detain people pre-trial
Open container, disorderly behavior, turnstile jumping, smoking weeds, shoplifting, but even theft, assault, and illegal gun possession are now but non-violent crimes to be ticketed and released. There is no detention. There is little prosecution.
The NYPD can't use their tools. This is a political choice. Precision policing, broken window, stationary posts, quality-of-life, Clean Halls, Borough Specialty Units, Organized Crime Control Bureau, Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit, and most recently, anti-crime. All gone.
By any quantifiable measure–a decline in arrests, a decline in crime, a decline in police use of lethal force, a decline in the number of complaints, plus terrorism prevention–the NYPD has been effective.
But none of this matters. Instead we're dismantling the NYPD. And for what? Just imagine telling the next generation, after murders top 1,000: "Well, of course we had to dismantle the NYPD, you see, because a cop killed a man in Minnesota."
