In the last five years, the New York City Housing Authority projects saw a 31% spike in major crimes, while the rest of the city experienced a 3.3% increase, records obtained exclusively by the Daily News show. Some public housing residents say they are afraid to leave their homes or even open their doors.
In the sometimes separate world of public housing, a realistic fear of crime lingers over 400,000 tenants — and it’s getting worse.
Many of the working people and elderly who make up the vast majority of New York City Housing Authority residents live in a constant state of hyper-awareness to avoid becoming a victim.
Records obtained exclusively by the Daily News reveal that in the last five years, public housing tenants have been battered by a stubbornly resilient spike in crime.
NYCHA’s 334 projects saw a 31% spike in major crime to an eight-year high, while the rest of the city experienced a 3.3% increase, the records show.
“It’s out of control. It’s out of hand,” declared a frustrated Patricia Herman, 61, who’s lived in the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem since 1979.
At Lincoln, murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, burglaries, auto theft and grand larcenies — known as the “seven majors”— nearly doubled from 33 in 2009 to 60 last year.
A bullet tears through a senior citizen’s living room window. Drug dealers ply their trade openly.
For many NYCHA tenants, stepping alone into an elevator or returning from the drugstore as the sun drops below the horizon can be a heart-thumping moment.
The NYPD data, made public for the first time, breaks down crime project by project, and reveals many developments have experienced an eye-popping spike in major crime between 2009 and 2013.
While murders declined slightly (from 62 to 58) and shootings dropped slightly (from 224 to 209), assaults rose 40%, rapes went up 13%, robberies increased 24%, burglaries 28% and grand larcenies 51%.
The rate has continued to climb in the first quarter of this year.
Sometimes it was a bloody domestic dispute. Sometimes it was a smash-and-grab theft of smartphones. Often it was related to the growing number of loosely affiliated “crews” whose penchant for violence seems to grow each day.
Deputy Chief Gerald Dieckmann of the Housing Bureau said the department’s increased efforts urging victims to report domestic abuse have contributed to the rise in recorded felony assaults and grand larcenies.
In 2010 about 36% of Housing Authority assaults were domestic, with the rate jumping to 54% last year.
“Basically, almost the whole increase is domestic-violence-related,” said Dieckmann, adding that some robberies are the result of domestic disputes as well. “I think that talking about it so much and our education efforts is part of the reason why it’s being reported.”
He also acknowledged that the growth of crews has contributed to more violent crimes in public housing, noting that for most, “It’s not about crime, but turf.”
Just last week the feds took down the Murda Moore Gangstas, a crew charged with dealing drugs out of the Moore Houses in the Bronx. Prosecutors said the group was constantly at war with gangs from four other NYCHA developments in the Bronx.
Since 2009, the feds have taken down gangs across Brooklyn NYCHA developments, including Gowanus, Marcus Garvey, Farragut and the Marcy Houses. But major crimes continued to rise.
Most recently the city was horrified when a 14-year-old shot a passenger on a city bus while aiming at rivals from a Marcy-based gang.
Susan Kim, 44, who’s lived at Marcy since 2007, has requested a transfer because she no longer feels safe.
“Six months ago we were sitting in the park,” Kim recalled. “We heard the gunshots. We ran. They were shooting. They do it in the daytime like it’s nothing — even when cops are around, they still shoot.”
It’s like a crime drama on some days.
Isaiah 1:4
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Lamentations 4:1
How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
Isaiah 51:20
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God.
Isaiah 59:7
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
:8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
No comments:
Post a Comment