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NYC Shooting Incidents Approach All-Time Low As 2016 Draws To Close
By
Raphael Pope-Sussman
Published Dec 28, 2016
Modified Dec 28, 2016
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Scott Heins/Gothamist
By
Raphael Pope-Sussman
Published Dec 28, 2016
Modified Dec 28, 2016
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New York City is on pace for a record low in shooting incidents in 2016, and with just four days left in the year, the city may see its first year with fewer than 1,000 incidents since the NYPD started keeping track.
According to NYPD statistics, there were 983 shooting incidents between January 1st and December 25th, 2016, a 12 percent decrease from the same period last year. (Two more incidents were reported this weekend, but the NYPD releases its official data weekly, so they are not included in the count.) A shooting incident can involve multiple shooting victims, meaning the total number of shooting victims exceeds the number of incidents. As of December 25, the NYPD had recorded 1,116 shooting victims, down from 1,321 at the same time in 2015.
Despite scaremongering from right-wing crackpots that Mayor Bill de Blasio is leading the city down a road to perdition, crime is down in virtually every major category from last year. After historic lows of 335 and 333 in 2013 and 2014, murders climbed to 352 in 2015. But as of Sunday they were down to 330 for the year, a 4 percent drop from last Christmas. Rapes, robberies, major larcenies, and burglaries are all down as well. Felony assaults are up very slightly—2.1 percent—but overall, major crimes are down 4 percent and look to come in just north of 100,000, which would also be the lowest on record.
In 1990, when there were 1.2 million fewer people living in New York City, the NYPD recorded 527,257 major crimes. In 2000, that figure was down to 184,652, an enormous drop, but still 80 percent higher than current numbers.
Violent crime rates in New York have continued to fall even as they have increased precipitously in several large cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, where violence has reached epidemic levels this year.
Meanwhile, the NYPD is conducting stop-and-frisks at a fraction of the rate it was in the latter years of the Bloomberg Administration. According to data from the NYCLU, the NYPD conducted conducted 685,724 stops in 2011. By 2015, that was down to around 22,000 stops; in the first half of 2016, the department conducted around 7,500.
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Raphael Pope-Sussman
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