Elections Have Consequences

You’re 45% more likely to be murdered in de Blasio’s Manhattan

Sixteen people were killed around the borough between the first of the year and Sunday. Over the same period last year, the figure was 11. That’s an increase of about 45 percent.

Shootings in the borough have also soared.

There have been 50 “shooting incidents’’ since Jan. 1, compared with 31 in the same time period in 2014 — an increase of about 38 percent. Some of these “incidents’’ involved more than one victim.
The number of shooting victims nearly doubled, from 33 to 61.

“City Hall better wake up soon,” a police source said. “When murders and shootings go up in Manhattan, everyone is affected,’’ he said, pointing out that crime impacts business, tourism and the city’s economy as a whole.

He said there are a variety of reasons, from the plummeting number of “stop-and-frisks’’ to the fact that the city needs more officers. “The cops’ hands are tied,’’ he said.

It's generally acknowledged that one reason De Blasio was elected was dissatisfaction with the police, and "stop-and-frisk" policy in particular. As the Curmudgeon Sage of Baltimore once noted:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

And speaking of the gem of the Patapsco:

Baltimore's deadliest month in 15 years: May counts 35 homicides, so far

Baltimore is seeing its deadliest month in 15 years after an outbreak of Memorial Day weekend violence left nine people dead in 29 shootings.

So far, Baltimore has tallied 35 homicides this month, police said.

The last time Baltimore saw that many homicides was December 1999, police said.

The only month to surpass 35 homicides was the prior month, November 1999, when 36 homicides were recorded, according to police statistics since 1999. That year was also Baltimore's deadliest in the past 16 with 305 homicides, police figures show.

It's probably unfair to directly link the sudden increase in homicides in Baltimore to the elected officials in Baltimore, it's almost certainly still in turmoil from the riots after the Freddy Gray, but clearly the Democratic and largely black administration in charge in Baltimore has not been able to quell the troubles there.