By: Jared Evan & Fern Sidman
New York City shootings over the last seven days skyrocketed by 142 percent compared with the same time period in 2019, from just 26 last year to 63 in 2020, according to NYPD data obtained by NBC News. This marks the third week in a row that shootings have doubled, as July 4th ended in a bloodbath across the city with six killed and forty-two shot overnight.
The New York City Police Department says 42 people were shot since 12 a.m. Sunday morning and at least six of those victims died from their injuries. A spokesperson for the department said those shootings occurred within a 15-hour period, NBC reported.
Unions representing officers in the department pointed blame at New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson for creating what the unions called an “unacceptable environment.”
The NYC Sergeants Benevolent Association tweeted to the public ““NEW YORK CITY to change name to CHICAGO Mayor DeBlasio & Speaker Corey Johnson making change after 37 people were shot in less than 24 hrs on Independence Day. Not 1 person was shot in Corey Johnson’s District. Guess it’s not his problem”
This drastic uptick in violence across the five boroughs comes at a critical juncture in time when DeBlasio and members of the city council reached an agreement as it pertains to the drastic slashing the NYPD budget. $1 billion in city revenue that normally is directed towards police funding has been summarily axed and the monies will now be headed towards community service and resource organizations.
“The irony is staggering and reaffirms to most sane people that this radical left-wing ideology being pushed by many city leaders is disastrous for the city as a whole, ” said a former police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
NBC reported late last week that the formidable surge in gun violence was directly impacting those of all ages, as an 11-year-old boy was on his porch when a bullet tore through his leg in an unrelated shooting on Tuesday – becoming one of nine shot throughout the five boroughs in a 24-hour span ending Wednesday.
The week prior, June 21-27, shootings recorded by police increased by 127 percent from 2019 to 2020. And the week before that, June 14-20, there were 55 shootings in 2020 compared to just 12 the same week in 2019, NYPD data shows that is a 358 percent increase. A total of 74 people were wounded in the 55 shootings with at least 19 of them injured in a single day.
Early Sunday morning, two cops sitting in their squad car in the Bronx, were fired upon. A bullet struck the windshield of a marked NYPD vehicle with two officers inside the vehicle in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.
Authorities say a male officer was injured by shattered glass while a female officer was treated at the hospital after having a ringing sensation in her ear.
The male officer, who has been on the force since January 2018, suffered a cut above his eye and was transported to an area hospital.
The female officer, who has been in the force since October 2019, was transported to an area hospital for tinnitus. No arrests have been made so far, as was reported by ABC News.
The following is a veritable litany of shootings that took place early Sunday morning ,according to the ABC News report.
– A 40-year-old man was fatally shot in the chest on Sutter Avenue in Brooklyn.
– A 19-year-old was shot in the chest and a 27-year-old was shot in the shoulder in East Flatbush. The 19-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital.
– A 20-year-old man was shot in the chest on Atkins Avenue in East New York. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
– A 29-year-old man was shot in the chest on East 170th Street in the Bronx Sunday evening. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
-A 21-year-old was shot in the chest on Christopher Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been made
– A 23-year-old man was found dead in Mount Sinai Saint Luke’s Hospital. Police say he had been shot in the back and was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, the NY Post reported that former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly blamed Mayor DeBlasio for weakening the police department, thus resulting in crime running rampant across the city.
“This mayor is atrocious,” Kelly told John Catsimatidis on his 77 WABC radio show in a Sunday interview. “If I had a magic wand I’d remove him. But, unfortunately, what’s waiting in the wings is no better.”
Kelly called the New York City Council’s cutting $1 billion from the police department a “kind of kabuki financing,” adding “we have DeBlasio here for another 18 months.”
For his part, Mayor DeBlasio said at a news conference on Monday that “This (crime in NYC) is something that we have to double down on. The NYT reported that he added that the escalation in the number of shootings was fueled by several factors, but mainly the “dislocation that has happened over these last four months with the coronavirus.”
“The fact that the court system is not working, the economy is not working, people have been penned up for months and months, so many issues underlying this challenge,” he said.
Meanwhile, New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told NY1 on Monday morning that is not shocked at the shooting surge over the July 4th weekend. “This has been predictable. You heard me saying, ‘A storm is coming’ . . . and we’re in the middle of it right now.”
According to a NY Daily News report, Shea said that blame can be assigned to a number of places for the dramatic uptick in crime. He said that emptying the infamous Rikers Island prison of half of its inmate population does not help matters as it pertains to keeping violent crime in check in the city’s largest city.
“When you take basically half the population of Rikers Island and put it onto the street and then wonder what’s going on, it’s dumbfounding to me,” Shea said during a radio interview on 1010 WINS on Monday, according to a NY Times report.
The NYT reported that the commissioner directed his ire at people who he said “think they know more about law enforcement” than the police, and cited a chokehold bill passed by the City Council that makes it a crime for officers to put their knees into someone’s back during an arrest. He said officers need more resources, public support and laws that help them fight crime rather than constraining them.
Commissioner Shea’s remarks were not the only example of the police casting blame for the outbreak in violence, according to the NYT report. On Sunday, the department’s top two borough commanders in Manhattan attacked the borough’s district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., on Twitter for not showing up at crime scenes and lashed out at elected officials and violence interrupters, civilians who work to prevent gun violence.
In other developments, President Trump on Sunday Tweeted to help New York City and crime ridden Chicago after a weekend of violence.
“Chicago and New York City crime numbers are way up. 67 people shot in Chicago, 13 killed. Shootings up significantly in NYC where people are demanding that @NYGovCuomo & @NYCMayor act now. Federal Government ready, willing, and able to help, if asked!” – the President tweeted.
Fifteen people were killed, and sixty-four others were wounded in shootings across Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend, according to report in the Chicago Sun Times.
Eleven of the weekend’s victims were minors, and two of the children died from their injuries. A 14-year-old boy was among four people killed in a shooting that wounded four others on Saturday night in Englewood on the South Side of Chicago.
“Tonight, a 7-year-old girl in Austin joined a list of teenagers and children whose hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement on Twitter. “We cannot grow numb to this. We are making progress in slowing shootings, but we have to do better, every single one of us.”
Early on July 4th a 7-year-old girl was shot at a party, when someone opened fire in the direction of the gathering, which included many children. Crime in minority areas of inner cities has exploded, almost metronomically with the George Floyd BLM protests.
“We need more effort and resources devoted to the illegal gun trade. We cannot simply accept that illegal guns flooding our streets is normal. Because it is not. And we should not accept this as a given. It may not be. And it must not be,” Lightfoot said. “I want to disrupt the pipeline that sees too many of our young boys become men raised by the streets. For young Black and Brown men, their career path cannot just be a corner. Instead of college or careers”, the mayor continued.
“What we’re seeing is these large gatherings are tracked and for people who think it’s okay to indiscriminately shoot into crowds. Eighty-seven people shot is never acceptable. Eighty-seven people shot in a week or a month is never acceptable. So, we’ve got to go back and look at what we need to do better.”
Currently, Lightfoot has not responded to President Trump’s offer to assist in curtailing the ever increasing crime rate in Chicago. The first term mayor’s tenure so far has been one riddled with problems in an already troubled city. Shootings across the city increased by 71% last month, with 409 people shot in May 2020 compared to 332 shooting victims in May 2019, according to police statistics. Murders were also up by about 60%, with 85 reported in May 2020 compared to 53 last year, according to the report in the Chicago Sun Times.
From January through May 1st of this year, 127 shooting victims have been recorded in Chicago, up nearly 30% from 868 in the same period in 2019, according to police. The 245 murders from January through May also mark a 25% increase from the 196 murders in the same period last year.
