#1 New York City goes an entire day without a violent crime
Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:46 pm
No one reported shot, stabbed or slashed in New York City on Monday, police sources say
No news really is good news -- not a single person was reported shot, stabbed or slashed in New York City on Monday, police sources said.
The shutout seemingly caught the NYPD by suprise, as officials were almost at a loss to explain it.
"Nice way to start the week," said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.
Neither Browne nor other officials could remember the last time a day ended with three zeros.
It likely didn't happen in 1990, when the city logged a record 2,245 murders, said Tom Reppetto, a NYPD historian and author of "American Police, 1945-2012."
"There were shootings galore,'' Reppetto said. "We lived in a town where people were afraid to come out of their houses, where babies slept in bathtubs to avoid getting shot, where nursery schools ran drills - 'When you hear the shots, drop down.'"
Reppetto said that the lack of gun and knife violence on Monday may be rare, but not a complete surprise, given that the city is on pace to finish the year with just over 400 murders.
"They're going to come in with the fewest number of murders since about 1960,'' he said. "It's an almost impossible figure, but their programs have been fabulously successful in stopping crime."
Thus far this year, crime is up three percent, fueled mostly by a 9 percent surge in grand larcenies that police attribute to thefts of smart phones and tablets.
But murders are down 23 percent -- 472 last year and 366 this year.
And there have also been 10 percent fewer people shot -- 1,674 last year and 1,514, about five a day, this year.
In 1994, the year the NYPD started Compstat, its computer tracking of crime, 4,967 people were shot -- almost 14 a day.
Statistics for stabbings and slashings were not immediately available, though police do track them closely.
Sources said the emphasis on its stop and frisk initiative has changed the way criminals think, with more likely to carry a knife because a gun conviction carries a heavier penalty.
And slashings, sources said, are often an indicator of gang activity
To be sure, someone did pull a trigger Monday -- a 16-year-old walked into Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the early evening with a gunshot wound to his right thigh.
But police later determined the teen accidentally shot himself and was not involved in a crime.
The streak ended 11:20 a.m. Tuesday when a 27-year-old man was shot in Brooklyn at Ralph and Flatlands Ave.
That was the first shooting since 10:25 p.m. Sunday, when a man in Bedford-Stuyvesant was shot in the head and badly wounded by a gunman wearing a red and black jacket and black hat.[/quote]
Of course it's entirely possible that there was a violent crime somewhere on Monday within New York that wasn't reported, but even if that proves to be the case, this is an unprecedented event. New York, a city of eight and a quarter million, is on pace this year to have 400 homicides, which is less than 20% of what it had in 1990 (2200) and actually a drop of more than ten percent over last year's figures. Since crime statistics began to be kept in 1960, there has not been a single day in which there were no violent crimes at all (no assaults, no rapes, no homicides) until last Monday. Hell, in 1990, there was not one single day when there were not at least four murders and 25 assaults reported. Crime rates nationwide have plummeted in the years since 1990, but not by THIS much. New York this year will have fewer homicides than Chicago, Philadelphia, or Pittsburg, despite those cities being one quarter, one fifth, and one seventh of the size respectively.
A few more years like this, and Spiderman will have to move to Baltimore.
No news really is good news -- not a single person was reported shot, stabbed or slashed in New York City on Monday, police sources said.
The shutout seemingly caught the NYPD by suprise, as officials were almost at a loss to explain it.
"Nice way to start the week," said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.
Neither Browne nor other officials could remember the last time a day ended with three zeros.
It likely didn't happen in 1990, when the city logged a record 2,245 murders, said Tom Reppetto, a NYPD historian and author of "American Police, 1945-2012."
"There were shootings galore,'' Reppetto said. "We lived in a town where people were afraid to come out of their houses, where babies slept in bathtubs to avoid getting shot, where nursery schools ran drills - 'When you hear the shots, drop down.'"
Reppetto said that the lack of gun and knife violence on Monday may be rare, but not a complete surprise, given that the city is on pace to finish the year with just over 400 murders.
"They're going to come in with the fewest number of murders since about 1960,'' he said. "It's an almost impossible figure, but their programs have been fabulously successful in stopping crime."
Thus far this year, crime is up three percent, fueled mostly by a 9 percent surge in grand larcenies that police attribute to thefts of smart phones and tablets.
But murders are down 23 percent -- 472 last year and 366 this year.
And there have also been 10 percent fewer people shot -- 1,674 last year and 1,514, about five a day, this year.
In 1994, the year the NYPD started Compstat, its computer tracking of crime, 4,967 people were shot -- almost 14 a day.
Statistics for stabbings and slashings were not immediately available, though police do track them closely.
Sources said the emphasis on its stop and frisk initiative has changed the way criminals think, with more likely to carry a knife because a gun conviction carries a heavier penalty.
And slashings, sources said, are often an indicator of gang activity
To be sure, someone did pull a trigger Monday -- a 16-year-old walked into Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the early evening with a gunshot wound to his right thigh.
But police later determined the teen accidentally shot himself and was not involved in a crime.
The streak ended 11:20 a.m. Tuesday when a 27-year-old man was shot in Brooklyn at Ralph and Flatlands Ave.
That was the first shooting since 10:25 p.m. Sunday, when a man in Bedford-Stuyvesant was shot in the head and badly wounded by a gunman wearing a red and black jacket and black hat.[/quote]
Of course it's entirely possible that there was a violent crime somewhere on Monday within New York that wasn't reported, but even if that proves to be the case, this is an unprecedented event. New York, a city of eight and a quarter million, is on pace this year to have 400 homicides, which is less than 20% of what it had in 1990 (2200) and actually a drop of more than ten percent over last year's figures. Since crime statistics began to be kept in 1960, there has not been a single day in which there were no violent crimes at all (no assaults, no rapes, no homicides) until last Monday. Hell, in 1990, there was not one single day when there were not at least four murders and 25 assaults reported. Crime rates nationwide have plummeted in the years since 1990, but not by THIS much. New York this year will have fewer homicides than Chicago, Philadelphia, or Pittsburg, despite those cities being one quarter, one fifth, and one seventh of the size respectively.
A few more years like this, and Spiderman will have to move to Baltimore.