The rate of murders and rapes in New York City soared in 2019 despite Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD’s claims that the city’s overall crime rate declined, the NYPD said.
Murders and rapes across all five boroughs of New York City increased sharply during January and February 2019, with authorities reporting a 50 percent increase in murders and a 23.6 percent increase in rape cases from the same time period in 2018, CBS New York reported.
At least 51 murders and 267 rapes were reported between January 1 and February 24, according to the NYPD’s CompStat reports.
Although the latest report claims that the overall crime rate in the city decreased by 8.3 percent, the numbers do not include misdemeanor crimes.
According to the data, misdemeanor crimes have surged by 26 percent over the past year from 459 in 2018 to 580 in 2019.
Despite the increase in crimes, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill touted the city’s success with reducing the crime rate.
“When you go back to 1990,” de Blasio told WNYC. “which very sadly was the high-watermark time of when crime was at its worst, murders are down 87 percent since 1990 when you now look at the 2018 numbers. It’s unbelievable.”
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