Disturbing NYPD data shows 37% rise in fatal stabbings and slashings in NYC amid surge in major crimes
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Fatal stabbings and slashings have reportedly increased by an alarming 37% in New York City as compared to the previous year amid a surge in major crimes. So far in 2022, 96 blade-involved slayings were logged by the NYPD as compared to 70 killings in 2021 during the same period.
According to the department statistics, in 2022, there has been a 10% increase in overall stabbings and slashings in the city, resulting in a count of 4,344 as compared to 3,954 in 2021, the New York Post reported.
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There has been a 16% decline in shootings in 2022 as the count dropped from 1,757 in the prior year to 1,474. However, the stabbings and slashings count is on the rise. The disturbing data covers crimes from January 1 to December 11, 2022, according to the New York Post.
Retired NYPD detective Michael Alcazar stated, “Not everybody can buy a gun, so what’s the next best thing everyone has access to? A knife. There isn’t real consequences if you get arrested with a knife; it’s probably just a misdemeanor and you’re going to be given a smack on the wrist." Alcazar currently serves as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
However, the worrying statistics have not taken count of a recent happening at a Manhattan homeless shelter where a 27-year-old was stabbed to death, authorities said. Inside the Project Renewal New Providence Women's, the young woman was stabbed by a 42-year-old woman just before 10.00 pm on December 17, 2022.
Authorities discovered the victim in the 6th-floor hallway whose head was injured from the attack. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital by EMS and she was declared dead about a half hour later. Following the incident, the attacker ran out of the homeless shelter and has not yet been caught.
In another horrifying incident on December 11, a 16-year-old girl named Saniyah Lawrence was stabbed to death in the neck in a Manhattan apartment after she allegedly got into a fight with her 18-year-old boyfriend Zyaire Crumbley. The killer, who has a previous record of six robbery arrests, turned himself in to authorities a day after the stabbing and was charged with murder.
As per the New York Post report, the former detective Alcazar said, "You have the knife on your person, you encounter a confrontation and there’s no cooling off period.” He further added, “How many times do you walk through the turnstile and there’s an EDP standing there staring directly at you, like he’s in a trance. You don’t know if that guy has a knife or a weapon.”
He also pointed out that there is a factor of "comfortability" for criminals under bail reform where low-level weapon cases are not prosecuted by DAs. Talking about the rise in crimes in the Big Apple, he said, “Everyone’s packing because everyone feels they have to protect themselves with the surge in crime in New York City. Bad guys have to protect themselves from other bad guys.”
The NYPD reports a rise in arrests in stabbings and slashings that went up by 42% in 2022, with a count at 2,139 as compared to 1,511 during the same period in 2021. The increase in fatal stabbings comes amid a 24% surge in major crime citywide as compared to the previous year.