The Big Apple’s core is rotten with crime, new police stats show.
Major crimes in the Midtown South have skyrocketed 44% as of Feb. 5 compared to the same time last year, with 412 incidents vs. 287, according to the NYPD.
The staggering jump in crime outpaces the total incidents for the city, which increased just 2.6%.
The precinct features some of the city’s most crowded and iconic spots, including Times Square, the Grand Central Terminal, Madison Square Garden and the Port Authority Bus Terminal — near where fatal gunfire erupted this week.
Bullets flew at West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue Thursday, outside a Shake Shack around 5:35 p.m., leaving 22-year-old Idrissa Siby of the Bronx dead and pedestrians in the packed tourist spot scurrying. The killing was believed to have been carried out by drug dealers, police and sources said.
Last month, a slasher went on a spree that left three people injured near the infamous bus terminal. Luis D Rosas, 41, was arrested Jan. 3 there — where he had been nabbed days earlier for menacing someone in a bathroom, according to the Port Authority Police Department and police sources.
The alleged serial slasher attacked his first victim, a 41-year-old man, around 9:15 p.m. Jan. 2 after asking him for a cigarette on Eighth Avenue near West 39th Street, authorities and police sources said. The victim was slashed on the left side of his face.
Sources said the same attacker is suspected of then slashing someone at midnight at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue — although that victim did not file a criminal complaint. The same assailant also randomly targeted a 50-year-old man as he left the 42nd Street-Port Authority subway station at West 40th Street and Eighth Avenue, according to police sources. In that instance, the victim was on the stairs when the stranger slashed him without warning and ran off.
“It’s kind of a race to the bottom. I don’t know if they don’t have enough cops or they just don’t care,” said a concerned 44-year-old Manhattan business owner, who declined to give his name.
“The mentally ill aren’t being addressed, there’s open air drug use and it’s all symptomatic,” he continued. “The ironic thing is this is the commercial corridor of the city. This is the heart of what New York is known for . . . The city isn’t doing a lot to clean this up.”
Felony assaults in Midtown South have surged 115%, up to 56 from 26; while robberies have spiked 59%, with 59 compared to from 37.
Also, grand larcenies are up 39% (to 237 from 170); burglaries climbed 10% (to 53 from 48), and auto thefts zoomed 20% (to 6 from 5), the data show.
Midtown South “continues to be decimated as if the city has almost given up on Times Square, [Grand Central Terminal], Penn Station and Koreatown; all under criminal control,” tweeted tech entrepreneur Reza Chowdhury, who founded AlleyWatch and New York Startup Lab.
Getting the Midtown madness — menacing vagrants, drug users and unhinged assailants — under control is key, business people and experts say.
“It’s an increase of shoplifting and random attacks,” groused Anthony Mignano, who manages 1450 Broadway, a 42-story office tower located on the corner of West 41st Street.
In July, he argued that homeless drug addicts were taking advantage of the LinkNYC WiFi kiosks, stopping customers from coming to his retail spaces. Mignano this week said business leaders successfully lobbied for more cops over the summer, but the “police presence has decreased” and the vagrants are back.”
Just about everyone who comes to New York City to work, visit, or play in Manhattan comes through Penn Station, Grand Central Station or the Port Authority Bus Terminal – all located within the not so friendly confines of the Midtown South precinct,” snarked Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and now a professor at John Jay College.
“You want to see the Knicks, Rangers, or go to a concert? You take the LIRR into Penn for Madison Garden. The mayor and other politicians continue to push companies to get people back to work, but the precinct that has the major hub for transportation is struggling mightily with crime. Can we blame people for not wanting to come in?”
The NYPD “continuously monitors crime conditions and drivers of violence as part of our mission of public safety for all New Yorkers,” the department said, noting, arrests involving major crime have increased during the same period by 64% ( 175 vs. 107). Quality of life enforcement has increased with criminal courts summons up 630% (416 vs. 57), the NYPD said.
“To address this crime condition, steady foot posts have been added and targeted enforcement continues to be conducted by Public Safety and Neighborhood Coordination Officers,” the department added.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/11/big-apples-core-is-rotten-with-crime-experts-biz-owners/
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