So far this year, New York City has reported more shootings than it did in all of 2019, killing or injuring almost one thousand people across the city’s five boroughs, The New York Post reports.
The Post found that a shooting in the Bronx on Saturday night marked the city’s 777th shooting of the year, one more than the 776 reported in all of 2019, according to data from the New York Police Department. Five shootings, three fatal, occurred in New York City late Friday night and early Saturday morning.
“It only gets worse from here,” said Joseph Giacalone, retired NYPD sergeant and current adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“As the shootings continue, so will retaliation,” he added. “It’s a vicious cycle that the NYPD worked hard to mitigate, but that they are no longer able and in some cases willing to do.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a retired NYPD captain, said after the shootings that several factors have contributed to the spike, including the elimination of the police Anti-Crime Unit and the contentious relationship between the police and the community, as well as a large number of handguns on the street. He told CBS New York that he supports establishing a tri-state task force on guns.
“We need to do more at our bus terminals, to do spot checks of the bags that are coming in. We need to do more, even at some of our bridges. People are bringing guns in,” Adams said.
“When a bullet leaves the barrel of a gun it does not discriminate, if it hits a police officer in a blue uniform or an everyday young person in blue jeans,” he added. “We need to come together. We need each other to make sure this city is safe.”