According to the Post today:
Downtown Manhattan, the city's party mecca, has been hit by an alarming spike in vicious street violence.
Assaults in Greenwich Village lead the frightening upturn, with a whopping 43 percent increase so far this year compared with the same period in 2008. Other hot Manhattan neighborhoods tainted by the crime wave include TriBeCa, with a nearly 17 percent jump, and Gramercy, which has seen a 24 percent increase in assaults.
The danger zones also include the East Village from East 14th Street to Houston Street and the East River to Broadway, which has seen a 27.7 percent rise, from 47 to 60 assaults. The Lower East Side has experienced a whopping 30 percent hike in assaults.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne attributed the crime jump largely to the neighborhoods' huge restaurant and bar scenes, which attract large numbers of late-night revelers.
The accompanying chart in the Post is incorrect: The number for the East Village is 27.7 percents, not 42.9 percent.
Updated: Runnin' Scared notes that the Post is seeing a bigger crime increase than the NYPD. As Roy Edroso writes: "The Post is apparently using something other than CompStat figures, though: the latest for the East Village's 9th Precinct shows crime reports only up 4.44 percent year-to-date, and murders at zero. Reported rapes are up from three to five, robberies from 63 to 66, and felony assaults from 47 to 60."
if a rise in crime chases some yunnies away, i'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteBeware of newspaper articles giving percentage increases from a low numerical base. What the article actually says that there have been two or three more assaults per month in the EV (a large area) compared to last year. That could just be a random fluctuation.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised the EV and LES hasn't attacted more criminal activity, given the high number of "targets". I suspect the scary high crime rates at the past were due to wars between drug gangs, and not the muggings that everyone is worried about.
Thanks, Prodigal Son... This Post "exclusive" seemed more like an opportunity to try to sell more newspapers in the LES...
ReplyDeleteProdigal Son beat me to it. Percentage shifts measured by very low numbers can be misleading.
ReplyDeleteHere's the East Village violent crime of the last year that concerns ME the most. And it was committed against a very drunk young woman, but not by a mugger or a street person or drug dealer. It was committed by two cops (one mainly a witness/accomplice).
ReplyDeletehttp://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6784033
It's the economy stupid, as they say. Every mayor in an uprising economy pats himself on the back for reducing crime. Then finances go south, crime goes up, and everybody starts the amnesia cycle all over again.
ReplyDeleteGood point, lvv -- that has been the highest-profile crime.
ReplyDelete