Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said at a press conference with Police Commissioner Dermot Shea that while the final overall crime statistics for 2019 in New York City show a record low – only about 95,000 incidents, some crimes are rising, albeit only gradually, and some others are spiking.
“While crime is at a record low in New York City, there is more work to do to ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in their neighborhood,” de Blasio said.
Most notably: Anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city spiked by 26% in 2019 – 234 reported cases, up from 186 in 2018.
“I think that the more light you shine on this, the better,” Commissioner Shea said. “To get people talking about it internally and externally as much as possible, I think it’s good for it.”
On Sunday, Shea said: “What we’ve been seeing in New York City on the crime side for some time this year is an increase in swastikas, an increase in hate speech, escalation into shoving, some assaults and a 21% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City.”
Somebody obviously updated him the next day – it was a 26% increase.
Meanwhile, here are the other ways NYC has become less safe last year:
Murder was up 7.8% compared with 2018 – from 295 to 318 homicides.
Shootings went up 2.9% – from 754 to 766.
Robberies up 3.1% – from 12,965 to 13,363.
“Our goal is to help young people steer clear of a first act of criminal behavior or if they’ve already stumbled, to guide them back to the right path,” Commissioner Shea said.
Now the good news: in a city where it is less safe to be a religious Jew, burglaries are down – from 11,777 in 2018 to 10,751 in 2019.
Grand larcenies were down 1.2% – only 43,227 in 2019.
Rape was down 2.5% – 1,760 reported cases in 2019. At which point the NYPD acknowledged that when it comes to rape, the data reflects how many victim reported, not how many victims were attacked.
Earlier, the mayor promised that “the NYPD will increase resources and patrols to precincts in Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg, as well as Midwood and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Each precinct will have an additional four to six officers per tour, in addition to an increased police presence at houses of worship during local events and more security cameras. Borough Park will also get six new light towers, officials said, on top of 15 that have already been installed throughout the other neighborhoods this month.”
“People in the community will see our officers present in front of houses of worship and out on the streets. We have to give people a sense of security and we have to show that this horrible trend we’ve seen over the last weeks will be stopped dead in its tracks,” the mayor promised.