Posted on 12/30/2008 3:50:16 AM PST by reaganaut1
In what may be the latest sign of the harsh economic times, five banks in four boroughs were robbed on Monday, four of them within an hour and a half.
But if the robberies, in their frequency and timing, were startling, so too was their brazenness. Most of them occurred in heavily trafficked areas in broad daylight, including one that took place steps away from Lincoln Center in the middle of the afternoon.
Bank robberies in the city are up by 54 percent this year, the Police Department said, to 431 as of Monday afternoon, from 280 at this time last year. Robbery statistics over the past 20 years suggest that the robberies may have been fueled in part by the financial desperation that sets in during a recession and the added pressures of the holiday season.
The authorities took notice in early September, when the number of bank robberies for the year reached 268, compared with 183 during the same period in 2007. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced that he planned to meet with the executives of major banks to warn them to follow a set of “best practices” developed in 2003, during the last surge of robberies.
Bank robberies have also increased across the country. Last week, there was a string of four major “take-over style” robberies in one day in San Diego, and major cities, including San Francisco, Houston and Milwaukee, have all seen drastic spikes in bank robberies this year, said Michelle Renee, a former banking industry executive who tracks bank robbery trends.
“It’s well documented that during a recession, bank robberies go up,” she said. “But also, this time of the year is the busiest time for bank robberies. So you combine those two together and it becomes a dangerous time for bank employees.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
New York City has strict gun control laws. I wonder if they interfere with banks having armed guards. They probably make robbers more brazen than they would be in a state like Texas.
They make horrendous business decisions and then expect a taxpayer bailout.
Hard to be sympathetic.
His royal highness, Bloomberg, just cut the number of police in the city. It is going to get worse.
> The Times writes as if bank robberies are almost justified by “financial desperation” and the “pressures of the holiday season” during a recession.
Given the collapses, bailouts and the Madoff fiasco — they almost are.
When there is big-time dishonesty happening — like ACORN, like the Birth Certificate situation, like Madoff’s scam, I find it really difficult to feel too upset if some little guy decides to do a quick raid on the local bank.
Robbing banks is still very wrong, but...
These banks are robbed, and other crimes are being committed, because of Bush! Plain and simple. Or at least that is what the media are trying to convey. I suspect after Jan. 20 we won’t hear much commentary about the “bad economy” forcing people to steal any more.
In the new Hobo economy, the Bank Robbers will be Heroes.
Bonnie & Clyde with a dash of Islamo/Communism/Fascism.
Hippy New Year for us all!
These are the good old days
That must explain why NYC has by far the lowest violent crime rate of any major and many mid and minor cities in the United States, including cities located in "carry at will" states with minimal firearm restrictions. Although bank robberies are up for the year, five in one day is one bank for every 1.35 million residents, which is probably on par with "safe," red state cities like Jacksonville, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas - Forth Worth, Birmingham, and Tulsa.
I don't know whether NYC's low violent crime rate is because of strict gun control or in spite of it. All I know is that NYC's violent crime rate is significantly and substantially lower than just about any other city in the Country.
I read in New York Magazine (not “The New Yorker”) about 30 years ago that for every $1,100 bucks taken in a bank robbery someone spends a year in jail. Bank robbery is definitely not a high end crime. Look at Bernie Medoff, embezzles $50,000,000,000 (50,000 million bucks) and he’s still hanging out in his ritzy pad. If Bernie got proportional treatment, by the time he got out, 2008 would be half way back to the Jurrasic era.
I love your tag line!!!!
Since when were UNEMPLOYED thieves and muggers affected or influenced by macro or micro economics?
As we head into an era of National politics Chicago-style, might as well have local activity be of the matching Al Capone style.
Congress takes from us to give to banks. Then people steal it back. It’s this fun.
Like the lawyer joke.........it’s a good start - why they’re just taxpayers getting their share of the bailout.
I think cops and feds everywhere should do a better job of preventing bank robberies and catching bank robbers and locking them up as long as they can.
I’m not with you when you say “hard to be sympathetic”.
Who do you think pays for bank robberies? The banks. Nope. Like everything else: me and you. The taxpayers.
I do agree with you, however, that banks also engage in robbery.
I have a BoA credit card. They are constantly sending me “convenience checks” attached to my statement, checks with my name and address on them, checks which if I use I have to pay a $10-$75 service charge, FOR A SINGLE CHECK. They obviously think I have the IQ of a bung-hole beetle and I’m highly offended that they insult me that way, not to mention peeved at the inconvenience of having to remember to shred the checks every time I get them, not to mention the possibility of them being stolen out of my mailbox.
I hate banks. All banks. But they are a necessary evil and bank robbers are unnecessary and in a just world would be put against the wall and shot. And their families billed for the bullets.
I've been bothered by this too. I complained once about one of my CC's, and there was something in their database that could be turned off for my account to halt these checks, that corrected the situation. I'd hazard a guess that some CC's can do this, and some cannot... depends on what they break out as options to their outsourced help on the other side of the planet.
LOL - for some reason your post tickled my funny bone.
depends on what they break out as options to their outsourced help on the other side of the planetLOL!
I guess we should be thankful the "help" is still on this planet. At least for now.
Bank robberies in the city are up by 54 percent this year
People are stupid under the best of circumsatnces. Bank robbery if I recall have one of the highest cleareance rates for law enforcment.
I can’t recall a single one in my area in the past decade that has not been cleared.
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