De Blasio touts lower crime numbers as assaults and robberies rise
Overall crime in NYC jumps 11.2% as robberies soar 16% and felony assaults spike by 14%: Lame-duck Mayor de Blasio blames courts for lack of trials as he touts dip in murders in October
- The mayor thanked the NYPD for the lower shooting and murder rates last month
- There were four fewer murders than in October 2020, but more than in 2019
- De Blasio also said shootings in Brooklyn are down 20% from this time last year
- He blamed the court system for what he said was a 92% decline in felony trials
- A court spokesman told DailyMail.com that the mayor is ‘out of touch’
- Crime has ravaged New York during the COVID-19 pandemic; Eric Adams, who won the election for mayor on Tuesday, ran on a platform of reducing crime
Lame-duck Mayor Bill de Blasio again blamed the courts for New York City’s skyrocketing crime numbers as he touted a small decrease in the murder rate while ignoring an 11 percent jump in overall crime.
According to the NYPD’s latest monthly numbers, overall crime was up 11.2 percent last month compared with October 2020. Robbery was up by 15.8 percent and felony assault rose by 13.8 percent.
The mayor cited statistics claiming that felony trials are down 92 percent from 2019. He also said pleas in felony cases are down 53 percent and sentencing is down 55 percent.
‘I’ll tell you what’s not working, and this is a profound problem: Our court system,’ de Blasio said at his press conference Wednesday.
‘After all the times that we’ve talked about the problems in the court system, we’re still seeing vey little change.’
A spokesman for the city’s court system slammed de Blasio’s comments in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.
‘Someone should alert the Mayor that Charles Lindbergh made it to Paris, since that would mirror how out of touch the Mayor is regarding activity in the New York Courts,’ said spokesman Lucian Chalfen.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio touted lower rates of murder and shootings in New York City on Wednesday as overall crime, robbery and assault continue to rise
He also touted the lower number of shootings in Brooklyn, which is down 20 percent from last year. There have been 445 shootings in Brooklyn this year, up from 248 in 2019
Crime in NYC is up 1.3 percent year-to-date compared to last year. Crime in October rose 11.2 percent compared to October 2020 as the mayor talks about a return to ‘pre-pandemic levels’
‘Criminal Courts in New York City are functioning, active and increasingly busy,’ he added.
Chalfen said the system has held 117 trials this year so far, compared to 600 at this time in 2019, and cited social distancing measures and ‘prisoner production issues’ as reasons for the shortfall.
‘Defendants are not produced for either meetings with their attorneys while in jail, which delays the defense attorney to be ready for trial or appearances in court – in- person or at the video booths on Rikers Island,’ Chalfen said.
He said half the trials have taken place in the past six weeks.
Chalfen added that more than 20 grand juries are sitting for felony presentations each week and that the court system had adjudicated 117, 413 felony and misdemeanor cases in NYC criminal Court and Supreme Court this year.
De Blasio, who will be replaced by the newly elected Eric Adams in January, focused in the drop in murders last month to 37, compared with 41 in October 2020, saying the minor reduction of 9.8 percent ‘says a lot.’
However, both counts are higher than the number of citywide murders in October 2019 (29) and October 2018 (18).
The spike in overall lawlessness comes as the city grapples with an increase in visible, violent crime, including horrific subway and street attacks that have left New Yorkers terrified.
On Monday at around 10pm, a man wearing a grinning mask inspired by the film The Purge attacked a stranger on the street with an ax. The 51-year-old victim was taken to a nearby hospital with a deep cut in his arm.
On Saturday morning, a man threw a Molotov cocktail into a Brooklyn bodega after an argument with employees. The workers escaped as the arsonist was about to throw a second one, but he was stopped by a witness.
NYPD released this photo of a man who randomly attacked a stranger with an ax while wearing a Purge Halloween mask on Monday night
Surveillance footage caught a man throwing a Molotov cocktail into a Brooklyn deli Saturday
Despite the shocking scene, only one person was hurt with non-life-threatening injuries
On Wednesday, De Blasio said shootings are down in Queens and Staten Island compared to last year, and emphasized the decline in shootings in Brooklyn, which are down 20 percent from last year.
There have been 445 shootings in Brooklyn so far this year, down from 557 at this point in the year in 2020 but up significantly from 248 in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘This is crucial. This is a big story in Brooklyn. The reality bares witness that there have been amazing efforts made even in the toughest of times by the NYPD.’
The mayor also blamed the city’s court system, where he says felony trials are down 92 percent from 2019. ‘This is a profound problem,’ he said. Above, a protest in 2020
A court spokesman said the mayor is ‘out of touch … regarding activity in the New York Courts’
Shootings, however, continue to climb in other parts of the city.
‘The Bronx is still a challenge – lots of resources being poured in to address Manhattan North as well,’ the mayor admitted.
De Blasio said shootings were down in other boroughs thanks to community and precision policing, which depend on deep ties with the community, according to the Manhattan Institute.
‘We’ve got to get the public more involved. We need people at the community levels to join those “Build the Block” meetings to get involved. Every New Yorker has information they can offer to the police that can be helpful to them,’ he said.
Eric Adams, who was elected as the next mayor of New York on Tuesday, won on a platform focused on reducing crime, which ravaged the city during the COVID-19 pandemic
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