[newwahoo]

The author hits most of the subject on point. He does leave out one of the major sources of the problem, however. There is a significant recruitment and retention problem going on in the NYPD, driven by a noncompetitive salary and poor working conditions. Good cops are leaving in droves to other departments and the city cannot find new ones to replace them. Some New York FReepers may have noticed the advertising campaign that has been going on. It is a failure. This is shown by the NYPD's need to once again extend the deadline for filing for its written test, the initial step in joining up.

I can further attest that morale is dangerously low. Most officers are beginning to see that aggressive police work is only rewarded by lawsuits and condemnation from the liberals and race hustlers.

[JoeGar]

The killings ... represent 16 percent of the city's 436 slayings ...

This means that an American is more likely to be killed in New York City than in all of Iraq. You don't see that on your nightly news (from New York City).

[maxwellp]

Where's Mayor Rudy when you need him? A very liberal Mayor Bloomberg might be the cause of this disaster.

[45Auto]

"It's alarming," said State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans). "We're not sure what's causing it,..."

And a few paragraphs down ,

Rapes are up 5 percent and auto theft is up by 5 percent while assaults are even. Meanwhile robberies (-10.8 percent), burglaries (-28 percent), grand larcenies (-15 percent) are all down this year.

So while homicides are up 212.5 percent over 2002 this year to date, the precinct's crime rate — the total of those seven crime categories — is actually down by more than 8.5 percent compared to last year. Some civic leaders believe the falling crime numbers are not so much a product of less crime as victims' failure to report it. Clopton said she had seen and heard from the community about "a return to some of the old issues we faced, the car dumping, the prostitution, the drugs and the blatant [display of] weapons. I see people flipping knives and showing guns."

Trends in crime have variability; as long as the drug trade is profitable, there will be seemingly senseless violence. Senator Smith needs a refresher course in the war on drugs and a history lesson about Prohibition to figure it out. And in NYC, its a given that none of the potential victims (except fellow gangsters) will be armed, thanks to 60 years of stupid gun control aimed only at the lawabiding citizen. Of course law enforcement can do very little about it. The gang-bangers own many of these precincts.

[harpseal]

NYC has a problem which it was able to get taken care of for a while by actively enforcing all teh quality of life laws but in order to really get teh murder rate down the need to adopt a rational gun control policy like Vermont.

[harpseal]

NYC has a problem which it was able to get taken care of for a while by actively enforcing all teh quality of life laws but in order to really get teh murder rate down the need to adopt a rational gun control policy like Vermont.

[Alberta's Child]

"No one has the answer on why there are so many more guns on the street . . ."

Bullsh!t. Everyone knows why there are so many more guns on the street, but nobody has the b@lls to say it.

The increase in gun-related crime in New York City coincides with the end of New Jersey State Police random stops on the New Jersey Turnpike -- we can't have any of that racial profiling, now.

[45Auto]

"Thirteen of the victims are black men. Five are Hispanic men. Four are black women. Two are Middle Eastern men and one a Guyanese woman. " Thirteen of those victims were shot. Nine were stabbed. Two were bludgeoned to death with objects and one hit his head on the ground after being punched.

So about a 50-50 breakdown as to method of killing, half with guns, half by other means. And what does the fearless new Mayor Bloomers propose? More gun laws in a city in which only criminals and police have firearms, where no one can get a permit to even own a gun, let alone carry one in public, and where those who use arms to defend family and property go to jail. And Senator Smith is baffled......which goes to show you that smart people don't go into politics.

[gitmo]

But NYC has eight Vermeers.