Serious crime keeps ticking up as Adams pushes to bring NYC back
Major crime and gun violence in the Big Apple have shown no signs of slowing as Mayor Eric Adams pushes people to get back to work and attempts to clean up the subway system.
New police data shows that serious crime is up nearly 14 percent this year as of Sunday, compared to the same period in 2020 — when the city was bustling before COVID-19.
The early crime trends this year present a challenge for Adams, who last week called for workers to return to New York City — promising a safer city with programs like his new subway safety plan to crack down on rule-breaking and help address the homeless population underground.
While much of this year’s crime increase is primarily driven by car thefts — a nationwide COVID-era trend that cops have struggled to reign in — New York has seen an uptick in felony assaults, burglary and grand larceny over the first eight weeks of 2022.
There have been 300 more serious assaults this year, compared to 2020 — 2,994 versus 2690, an 11.3 percent increase, according to the data released Monday.
Burglaries are up 6.6 percent from 1,908 to 2,034 and grand larcenies up 7 percent from 3,753 to 6,763, the data shows.
Shootings have also surged nearly 60 percent from pre-pandemic times, from 97 to 154 incidents.
Gun violence, another statistic that has soared since the shutdown during the first wave of COVID-19, is also up this year by more than 25 percent from 2021 — when the city was recording record highs in shootings.
Major crime is up overall compared to 2021, but over those weeks last year much of the city was on lockdown following a holiday surge of infections and vaccines were not yet widely available.
