Mayor Eric Adams surely meant to calm fears when he noted Sunday that crime in the city isn’t as bad as during the 1980s and early ’90s. But it won’t make New Yorkers feel any safer.
“I was in the city when [crime] spiraled out of control during the mid-’80s, early ’90s,” and we’re still “far from that,” Adams replied when asked about New Yorkers who feel “unnerved” after last week’s subway attack.
Yes, crime was once much worse: Murders in the city peaked at 2,262 in 1990; by 2017, they’d fallen to just 292.
Yet they’ve crept back up every year since 2017, hitting 488 last year. They’re down slightly from that rate so far this year, but the city’s seen a 43% surge in overall major felonies, including car thefts (71%), assaults (25%), rape (15%), robbery (48%) and grand larceny (55%). In the subway, major felonies are running 68% higher than at this point last year.
The problem, of course, is that New York lawmakers have turned sharply against cops and in favor of criminals. The moment Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, took office, he slammed cops and settled the case against the city’s stop-and-frisk practices, tying the hands of future mayors. He then proceeded to end “broken windows” policing, scrap the city’s undercover anti-gun units and back soft-on-crime judges and prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Albany passed disastrously flawed measures like cashless bail, tougher new pro-defense rules for district attorneys and the Raise the Age law, which lets nearly all 16- and 17-year-old offenders escape serious consequences in the adult-court system. During the 2020 George Floyd riots, anti-cop hostility grew even more intense, and the city actually cut NYPD funding.
Last year, the City Council made it far easier to sue individual cops for on-the-job actions. That forces every officer to think twice before doing his or her job.
So never mind the ’80s; New York City’s crime surge is bad — and getting worse. Adams vowed to turn it around, and he’s clearly trying. But he’ll need to undo a ton of bad policies to get significant results.
And nothing short of results, Mr. Mayor, will calm New Yorkers’ fears.