Story at a glance
- New York City is experiencing a sharp uptick in gun violence compared to yearly data.
- The trend is being observed in other U.S. cities.
While national protests — sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police — continue to shine a light on violence and policing, New York City has been experiencing a sharp rise in gun violence since the beginning of June.
The New York Times reports that 125 shootings have been recorded over the first three weeks of June — more than double the number reported one year ago in June 2019. The Times cite shootings during group activities, like parties and barbecues, as well as vigilante street executions.
“You have to go back to 1996 to have a worse start of June,” Michael LiPetri, chief of crime control strategies, told reporters.
In response to this uptick in violence, city Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said that while he will heed calls to reform the police department, he will issue more officers to patrol the streets.
“We’re not going back to the bad old days when there was so much violence in the city,” de Blasio said at a news conference. “Nor are we going back to the bad old days where policing was done the wrong way and, in too many cases, police and community could never connect and find that mutual respect.”
This burgeoning and concerning trend is not unique to New York; Chicago has also seen deadlier episodes of violence, with the Chicago Sun-Times reporting 104 people shot over Father’s Day weekend on June 22, resulting in 14 killed.
The Times further writes that homicide rates were also growing on a national level in early 2020 when comparing it with year-over-year data. While they briefly relaxed coinciding with the pandemic, incidents rose again in May. Some experts link New York City’s rise in gun violence to a new bail law limiting judges’ ability to jail people arrested on certain charges.
Christopher Herrmann, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told reporters that he has not seen a concentrated increase like this before. He attributes it to a “combination of warmer weather, Covid cabin fever and the traditional gun violence that we see in June, July and August.”
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