Many New Yorkers – and
specifically Canarsiens – don't seem to believe the cold hard facts. If
you tell someone crime is down, they might ask: Where or who did you get that idea from?
Those who attend 69th Precinct Community Council meetings every month
get to SEE the facts on paper.
Residents can pick up a copy of the
latest Compstat report, which breaks crime rates into several
categories, such as murder, grand larceny, rape and robberies. Monthly
Compstat reports compare crimes over respective weeks, months and years.
So, why, when we turn on the news or read a newspaper, does it seem
like we're still not safe walking the streets where teens are shot and
police officers are dying in the line of duty across the city?
It was nice to receive a press release from the city that quoted
Mayor Bloomberg, who said, “Despite tough fiscal times, New York's
frontline public safety agencies - the NYPD and the FDNY - continue to
keep our city safer than in any time in record history.”
Unfortunately, while I was reading News12’s feeds on Facebook,
another report stated this year was the first time in 14 years that more
law enforcement agents died in shootings than traffic accidents. There
was a 13 percent increase in police deaths this year in comparison to
previous years.
And as many weapons as police are taking off the streets through gun
buyback programs and numerous arrests, gunfire was still noted as
responsible for most cop-related casualties. The number of police
casualties around the area are not, for some reason, listed on the
Compstat reports.
When our November 24, 2011 issue hit the newsstands, everyone in
Canarsie wanted to read about the murder of 17-year-old Shaquille Jones
that happened near East 79th Street and Flatlands Avenue. Only a few
days later, Dwight Langdon was murdered near East 82nd Street and
Flatlands Avenue. Shootings - whether they resulted in a death or not -
seemed to happen every week. Bodega employees are held up at gunpoint
and innocent deliverymen, often held up at gunpoint, are victims of
theft.
There were also reports in the news that thefts of electronics are on
the rise - whether you’re walking on the street or you're riding the
subway, warnings about being more vigilant when using a gadget in public
are plastered everywhere. Now, if this city is such a SAFE place and
we're better off than we were 10 years ago, why do we have to hide our
iPods, cell phones and cameras when we're traveling to work?
The way Bloomberg speaks about the safety of our city, we shouldn't
worry about someone attacking us for our cell phones and we shouldn’t be
paranoid about who's going to walk up behind us as we enter a train
station late at night. If we're down so much in crime, shouldn’t a good
percentage of the “bad guys” be off the streets already?
The only way to justify the “safe” aspect of decreasing crime stats
is the supposed fact that some murders are incidents involving
individuals who most likely knew each other and had personal disputes
with each other prior to the shooting, stabbing or robbery. These
“isolated incidents” allegedly involved gang rivals, friends, family
members, drug-related interactions and boyfriend/girlfriend arguments
gone awry.
From my experience as a reporter, crime isn’t up - and it isn’t down.
It seems to be remaining somewhat the same, with arrests being made not
too long after the crime occurred. Elected officials in East Flatbush,
Crown Heights and East New York aren’t holding anti-gun protests for the
fun of it and parents aren’t picketing in droves for safer conditions
just because they like to show off oak tag paper with their handwriting
displayed.
We still have some serious improvements to make - but the Mayor
should face the facts when it comes to the accounting for the horrific
crimes that go down in the city’s small, dangerous communities. It may
not be particularly good for New York’s tourism to admit the truth but
it’s also not good to tone down what’s really happening on our streets.
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