(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What crime wave? New York sees a significant drop in crime this summer [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-06 New York Crime in New York did not meet expectations this summer. Despite dire Republican warnings of Armageddon, America’s largest city — which 30 years ago was the bloodied poster child of urban violence and criminal endeavor — has remained a safe place to live and visit. (Full disclosure. I am a New Yorker, and I remember the 1990s) Crime is a year-round phenomenon — but its busy season is the summer. However, in July/August this year, NYC saw a 28% drop in shootings and a 19% drop in murders compared to the same two months last year. NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban summed up the situation in a news conference today: “New York City is the safest big city in the nation. We will continue to drive overall crime even lower. This is happening at a time when historically crime often spikes.” The New York Daily News reported the mostly good news. Cops investigated 192 shootings in July and August, 76 fewer than the 268 recorded last summer, cops said. Detectives also probed 61 homicides, 15 fewer than the summer before. The NYPD did record 4,775 assaults in the five boroughs this summer, 10 more than last summer, cops said. The results for the whole year have also been good, with an uptick in assault and an exception created by a social-media trend. Since the beginning of the year, cops have seen drops in five of the seven crime categories they track in their CompStat system. There were reductions in homicides, rapes, robberies, burglaries and grand larcenies, and non-violent thefts of $1,000 or more. Cops also saw a 5% uptick in assaults this year and a whopping 18% jump in car thefts, spurred on mostly by a viral TikTok challenge that shows teenagers how easy it is to steal Kias and Hyundais. National This decline in New York is reflected in nationwide urban statistics. The Council on Criminal Justice has analyzed 37 American cities. It shows that crime is down year-over-year in every category from murder to larceny — except car thefts, which have spiked almost 30% (TikTok?), and an uptick in drug offenses. Conservative fantasy There are two Americas. One is a conservative-imagined hell hole, where criminals roam the streets raping, robbing, and murdering innocent citizens — who are denied the right to self-defense by Democratic-run city governments enforcing Nazi-style, gun-stripping laws — before they run amok in Nordstroms and the local Walgreens. The other is the real America. Reality This is not to say that America does not have a high crime rate for a developed country. It does — especially when it comes to murder and gun crime. But Democrats are not the ones insisting on slack laws and loopholes that make it easy for criminals, wife-beaters, and angry young men to get their hands on guns. Even conservative religious luminaries celebrate right-wing America’s dedication to firearms. Mike Huckabee wrote a book about it — as well as obesity, poor cuisine, and theocracy — called “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy.” Mike is right to link God and guns. I cannot say that religion causes crime. However, states in the Bible Belt are among those with the highest rates of violent crimes . And they are above average with non-violent crimes . It makes sense that states with higher gun ownership rates generally have higher gun crime rates. Yet the correlation between gun homicides and church attendance is equally robust. The good and bad news on gun violence While gun violence remains a fact of life in the South, it is improving overall. In 2023, the US is on pace for 19,300 gun homicides and 43,450 total gun deaths — which represents an 8% decline in both since Biden took office. Unfortunately, the number of mass shootings (on pace for 718) and mass murders by gun (44) are up — mass shootings by 4% and mass murders by 57% (which suggests that more powerful weapons and large-capacity magazines make it more likely people do not survive mass shootings). Note: A mass shooting involves 4+ wounded, and a mass murder 4+ dead — not including the shooter. Conclusion [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/6/2191868/-What-crime-wave-New-York-sees-a-significant-drop-in-crime-this-summer Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/