New York City Police Department sources revealed there were 15 shootings in a 15-hour span in New York City over the weekend.
The New York Post spoke to several NYPD sources on Sunday who reported the spate of shootings, which includes a 21-year-old currently in the hospital after he was shot in the head in Brooklyn that morning while sitting in a car.
The number of shootings that took place in the city over the last week is more than triple the number of shootings that happened there this time last year. There have been 43 shootings in the last week, compared to 13 during the same time period in 2019.
This weekend’s shootings come as the city reports an overall spike in violent crimes. Over Independence Day weekend, there were 10 shootings and one person killed in a nine-hour span.
June saw more of the same, with law enforcement sources telling the New York Post that murders and shootings were much higher than in the same period last June. There were 13 murders between June 1-7, with 40 reported shootings compared to five murders and 24 shootings during the same time period in 2019.
Some have said the increase in crime is due in part to the disbandment of the NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime unit in June in an effort to reform the department following protests and riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
“Anti-Crime’s mission was to protect New Yorkers by proactively preventing crime, especially gun violence,” Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said in a statement at the time. “Shooting and murders are both climbing steadily upward, but our city leaders have decided that proactive policing isn’t a priority anymore. They chose this strategy. They will have to reckon with the consequences.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced earlier this summer that the city would slash the NYPD’s budget by $1 billion.
“I’m excited to say we have a plan that can achieve real reform, that can achieve real redistribution, while at the same time ensure that we keep our city safe, while we make sure that our officers are on patrol around where we need them around this city,” he said.
Hundreds of police officers have also filed their retirement papers in recent weeks as tensions between the force and the public become more strained by the increase in crime and a growing anti-police sentiment in the country.
“There’s just droves and droves of people retiring. But there’s no surprise here, who the hell wants to stay on this job?” one officer said about the retirements.
President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins, also railed against the leadership in the city amid the increase in crime and police retirements.
“There is no leadership, no direction, no training for new policies,” Mullins said. “Department brass is paralyzed [and] too afraid to uphold their sworn oath in fear of losing their jobs. Sadly, the people of this city will soon experience what New York City was like in the 1980s.”