“What I see isn’t just crime, it’s a gigantic red flag that something deeper is happening in these communities and in these people’s lives,” she said. She believes the mayor’s plan does little to address underlying factors that have contributed to the crime spike. “When violent crime rises, it is usually our low-income Black and brown communities that suffer the most, and I would expect what’s happening now to follow that trend,” Perez-Jordan said. These searches, in which police stopped and frisked people they considered suspicious, disproportionately targeted Black and Latino men. She’s particularly concerned with the reintroduction of plain clothes officers, who in the past have been accused of violating the rights of minorities with controversial tactics like stop-and-frisk searches. Having lived in the city for 12 years, Perez-Jordan, 45, says she’s familiar with what over-policing Black and Latino neighborhoods can do. The organization’s mission is “to eliminate the racial inequities that permeate the justice system,” according to their website. “If we want to fix the uptick in violence, we have to start with poverty, the root of all violence, and fix the lack of resources for the youth, as well as mental health.”Ĭarmen Perez-Jordan, CEO of the nonprofit The Gathering for Justice, agrees. “Violence behaves like a contagious disease epidemic,” Blain said. He fears that more policing could alienate and even have an adverse effect on communities of color. Police officers standing inside the Harlem 125 Street Station. There’s a trust issue thing going on and we feel that we aren’t safe around them.” “Our communities’ police do not communicate well with the people and vice versa. “More policing is not the answer,” said Blain, who lives in the Bronx. He says his experience has shown him there are more effective ways of combating crime than policing. He says the focus on increased policing is misplaced and could backfire.Īs a violence interrupter for NYC Cure Violence, the city’s crime prevention program, Blain, 23, walks through Harlem speaking with at-risk youth to deescalate conflicts and inspire them to find paths other than crime. Other New Yorkers, like Rasheed Blain, worry about rising crime but cast doubt on the mayor’s plan. The city saw 1,814 murders in 1980, the year the New York Times called the “ worst year of crime in city history.” That assessment was eclipsed at the peak of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1990, when the Times reported that New York City had recorded 2,245 homicides. To someone new to New York City it feels like things are going downhill, but New York always comes back.” “Crime levels here dip down and go back up, but it’s still no comparison. “This is nothing like the 70s or 80s,” he said. “I trust our police officers to keep us safe,” Curley said.Ĭurley, who lived through the city’s heyday of crime in the 1980s, pointed at the walls of the Times Square-42 Street subway station, noting how they were once covered in graffiti and the platform trashed. Patrick Curley, 70, a lifelong New Yorker who lives on the Lower East Side, also welcomes the mayor’s plan, and says he’s confident the NYPD will restore public safety. Patrick Curley inside a train at a Times Square-42 Street subway platform. It also revives a controversial plainclothes unit on the police force rebranded as “Neighborhood Safety Teams.” It includes an increase in officers on patrol, especially during warm months when crime increases additional resources for the city’s existing gun seizure unit new technology to stop the influx of guns and job creation for at-risk residents. In January, Adams announced a comprehensive plan to combat the crime wave. Officials have blamed the rise on a mix of factors, including changes to the justice system – such as New York’s new bail reform legislation – and a flood of illegally trafficked guns, which gun advocacy groups and criminologists say was fueled by the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.Įconomic and social hardships brought on by the pandemic played a role in the increase in crime, with the number of people experiencing homelessness since the beginning of the pandemic increasing “substantially,” according to Mayor Eric Adams. She avoids certain streets at different hours, and is “always, always” ready to run.Īfter three decades of historic lows, crime rates across New York City began to tick up in 2020. She tries to skip taking the train when she can. Harlem has been Weston’s home for decades, but it’s starting to feel a lot less safe, she says. Pilar Weston standing outside of Harlem's 125 Street Station.
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