Crime reduction in New York by Sean Hayes, 2021 candidate for NYC Council? After starting 2021 with two solid months of crime reductions, the NYPD hit a bump in the road in March, according to statistics released Tuesday. Overall index crime jumped 2.4% last month, year-over-year, due largely to a significant uptick in murders and reported auto thefts. Shootings continue to remain a problem as well, with another 99 incidents recorded in March — up 76.8% from the 56 shootings tallied in March 2020 — even as the NYPD continues making hundreds of gun arrests each month. Another 492 gun arrests were made across the five boroughs last month, with the majority of them (275) occurring in the Bronx and northern Brooklyn.

According to a report released by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in January, between 95% and 97% of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who were arrested and charged with a crime in 2020 were not rearrested for another crime while awaiting their case. Of the group who were rearrested after being released without bail, less than 1% were charged with a violent felony. Of the roughly 9,000 New Yorkers awaiting trial on a violent felony charge in September of 2020, 96% were not rearrested on any charge, and 99% were not arrested for another violent felony, according to the report. These figures have remained steady before and after bail reform was passed. “There isn’t a viable, reliable connection between, these folks are being released pretrial, and these are the same folks who are going out picking up guns and committing shootings and other serious crimes,” said Krystal Rodriguez, the deputy director of jail reform at the Center for Court Innovation. If anything, New York’s judges increased the number of cases in which they set bail in the latter half of 2020, a rise that a Center for Court Innovation study attributes in part to “unsupported claims from public officials, amplified in the media, that bail reform was a primary factor in New York City’s spike in shootings and murders in 2020.”

Increase in pre-trial diversion programs that prohibit prosecution if, for example, one attends art classes. These programs were, even, offered to some gun offenders. These programs have increased the number offenders on our streets with the understanding by the offenders that in many cases an offender shall merely get a slap on the wrist. Starting on January 1, 2020 New York State supported by the New York City Council and Mayor de Blasio implemented Bail and Discovery reform. This Bail and Discovery Reform legislation led to an increase in the number of suspects out on bail and an expedited discovery process that is leading to the dropping of cases against suspects. See more details at https://www.seanhayes4nyc.com/post/new-york-is-in-the-middle-of-a-crime-wave.

We can understand that from the closure of business because of pandemic restrictions we shall see a decrease in armed robberies, since many stores, banks and other businesses with cash were not open. However, the rise in homicides and shootings has no logical connection to the change in situations. What is the argument? Maybe we can understand an increase based on the increase in drug use during the pandemic, but the doubling of shootings is not something that can be just explained away – without argument.

Sean Hayes a 47-year old NY Attorney; Head of an International Law Firm; former lawyer working in China, Korea & Southeast Asia; former Professor, CEO, Dean of a UN University and Journalist fears that our City shall turn to the Dark Days of the 80s and early 90s, because of reactionary and radicalized politics in New York and the lack of experience, pragmatism, and problem-solving skills of our politicians. Sean is running in the Democratic Primary for City Council in District 1. Sean looked around and saw that the majority of candidates running for NY City Council and for Mayor lacked experience, centrist viewpoints & pragmatism and were too radicalized to manage the needs of residents of New York City. Discover extra details at https://www.seanhayes4nyc.com/.