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Letters to the Editor — April 27, 2021
Eric Adams slams ‘silence’ on rising crime, says ‘black and brown’ are bearing the brunt
MTA leaders back union request for more subway cops
Bronx man fatally shot while attempting to help intoxicated friend
All hell’s breaking loose in Hell’s Kitchen — indeed, all across the city. Yet Mayor Bill de Blasio seems even more oblivious than ever.
From Friday to Sunday, police recorded 28 shootings across Gotham, including 14 on Saturday alone. That compares to just four shootings over the same days last year. And it capped a weeklong gunfire spree that saw 50 people shot in 46 incidents, a whopping 300 percent surge from 2020.
“It’s a gold era” for gun thugs, says John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Eugene O’Donnell, an ex-cop. “The word is out that the risks of carrying a gun are really negligible.”
Actually, the risks of consequences from most crimes in the city have grown small. And the results predictable, as reputed gang member Takim Newson’s 12-hour crime rampage made clear.
Newson was charged with attempted murder just this month, but the judge still sprung him with no bail. Then cops stopped him Friday as his car blocked traffic — and Newson drove off, dragging one officer with him. Next, he broke into a house, threatened a 66-year-old woman and stole another car, police say.
Cops also had their hands full with Black Lives Matter protesters as they blocked traffic at the Brooklyn Bridge. (A few perps got . . . tickets. That’ll show ’em!)
And Hell’s Kitchen residents tell The Post that the homeless are taking over streets as the weather warms up. “This summer will be the night of the living dead,” one activist frets.
On top of all this, cops are retiring in droves: Some 5,300 uniformed officers retired or put in their papers last year, a stunning 75 percent spike from 2019.
“Cops are forming a conga line down at the pension section,” another John Jay adjunct prof and ex-cop, Joseph Giacalone, warns. He’s expecting a “long, hot summer,” especially after the City Council voted to make it easier to sue cops personally.
Labor leaders, meanwhile, have called for more cops in the subways to protect workers who rely on them, following pleas by business groups for de Blasio to do something about violent vagrants in Midtown.
In response, de Blasio’s rolling out a few programs unlikely to put a dent in the mayhem. The budget he unveiled Monday offers the NYPD virtually no new resources.
Hizzoner has a long record of ignoring business groups, cops and scared residents. But now even his labor allies are screaming for help. Surely he can do something meaningful to stop the madness.
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