Burglaries and Assaults Down in March, but Many Other Crimes have Increased

  While burglary was down by 8.5% compared to March of last year and assault declined by 0.9%, unfortunately New York City saw increases last month in most other crimes.

   Compared to March 2020, for instance, crime last month rose 2.4%, which was driven by a 36% increase in murders, a 30.4% increase in rapes, a 35.1% increase in car theft.

   In addition, while March 2020 saw 56 shooting incidents, last month’s shootings skyrocketed to 99 episodes.

   The NYPD, however, continues fighting back and increasing its efforts to get guns off the streets, as the department made 66.8% more gun arrests in March 2021 compared with March 2020.

   After making 492 gun arrests last month, the NYPD said in a statement that, “combating gun violence in New York City remains a central focus for the NYPD,” which, “as always, sends additional officers to areas experiencing upticks in violence.

   “Additionally, precision policing allows investigators to build strong cases against those very few criminals who are the persistent drivers of violence.”

   While hate crimes appear to be rampant in New York City, the 87 hate crimes that the NYPD has reported have taken place since since Jan. 1, has actually come down from 90 hate crimes that were committed in March 2020.

   The difference in perception of hate crimes perhaps comes from the 31 hate crimes that have been perpetrated against Asians, who at this time last year had no hate crimes perpetrated against them at all.

   While 20 hate crimes have already been directed at Jews in New York City this year, thankfully, that number has come down from 41 at this time last year.  

   Ten of the hate crimes were directed toward African-Americans, and two were directed at Hispanic people.

   “Our hardworking police officers and investigators are relentless in the pursuit of public safety for all New Yorkers,” said Police Commissioner Dermot Shea in a statement. “Their work to prevent and investigate crime, as well as to build relationships with those they serve, continues, every day, in every borough and neighborhood of the city.”