An 8 percent jump in homicides citywide is troubling; more worrisome is that it’s driven by a nearly 65 percent spike in the Bronx. We trust the NYPD to turn the numbers around — but can only hope it will have the full support of local politicians.
To be fair, the percentage increase is so big mostly because New York’s Finest have brought crime so far down over the last quarter-century: The 51 homicides in the Bronx in the first six months of the year is up just 20 over the same period in 2017.
Back in the late 1980s, that would’ve been barely a blip in the murder rate.
It’s still bad news, and accompanied by a jump in shootings — but in itself no sign that crime is raging out of control. (Indeed, other crime categories have hit historic lows.)
And the NYPD is on it, adding cops in particular to the two precincts at the heart of the trouble, the 40th and the 48th. Moreover, police have already made arrests in nearly 70 percent of those 51 Bronx homicides.
Chief Terrance Monahan attributes 30 percent of the fatal shootings — and 40 percent of non-fatal shootings — to gangs.
Gangs such as the Trinitarios, the thugs who executed young Lesandro Guzman-Feliz last month. Cops have already arrested a dozen Trinitarios in that case.
Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx) praises the NYPD’s “precision policing strategy” for targeting the bad apples that her constituents “want off the street.” We hope she’ll have words with other council members who’ve been attacking the NYPD’s efforts — in particular, those raising false fears about the department’s gang database.
Councilmembers Diana Ayala and Rafael Salamanca, who’ve voiced their own worries about the Bronx violence, should back her up.
Some pols will always make hay out of bashing the NYPD. It’s up to those who know better to squelch them.