New York City has experienced 22.5% rise in crime since the same time last year. Serious crimes such as robbery, assault, burglary, shooting, and auto crimes all saw increases.
The blame for the significant rise is being placed on new criminal justice reforms recently enacted into law. The NYPD stated in a press release, “Criminal justice reforms serve as a significant reason New York City has seen this uptick in crime.”
According to Politico:
In the first two months of the year, the NYPD says 482 people who were released after being charged with a felony where cash bail is prohibited went on to be arrested for 846 new crimes. Of those, 299 were the seven major crimes the department uses to calculate crime stats.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio, one-time Democrat presidential candidate who supported bail reform, is now recognizing it as the source of the rise in crime in the city, saying, “There’s a direct correlation to a change in the law, and we need to address it, and we will address it.”
Governor Mario Cuomo, who previously demanded that the reforms be enacted, is now admitting that there are “unintended” consequences that need to be addressed. “We’re going to work on it because there are consequences we have to adjust for. There’s no doubt this is still a work in progress, and there are other changes that have to be made.” He is now demanding reform of the reforms.
Many voices cautioned that the new law would lead to an increase in crimes. It did.
Take, for instance, the case of Tiffany Harris, a 35-year-old in Brooklyn who was arrested for attacking three Jewish women in Crown Heights. She was then released because of the new bail law. She assaulted someone else the very next day. Hers is just one of the hundreds of similar stories since bail reform became law.
New Jersey also enacted bail reform but gave judges the power to detain some criminals for trial with the proviso of a speedy trial. They also provided funding for more judges. New Jersey has seen a spike in crime but it is not as steep as New York’s increases.
California lawmakers wrote SB10, a no-bail law that will go before the voters in the 2020 general election. Californians should look well to the New York and New Jersey before they approve such a law.
This video discusses the spike in crime one month after it took effect:
