President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a warning to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio following a wave of gun violence in the city over the weekend that left at least seven people dead.
The president appeared to suggest on Sunday night that unless the mayor’s office is able to tackle the recent surge in violent crime in the city, the federal government would step in.
“Law and Order. If @NYCMayor can’t do it, we will!” Trump wrote.
Law and Order. If @NYCMayor can’t do it, we will! https://t.co/N88GX9Rkc9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2020
It came as at least 52 people were shot in the nation’s most populous metropolis in the space of 72 hours since Thursday, according to ABC 7. The city has seen a spike in violent crime in recent months.
According to figures from the New York Police Department, shootings in the city logged a staggering 220 percent increase in the week ending July 19 compared to the same week a year ago, while monthly shootings have surged by 194 percent compared to the same 28-day period in 2019.
According to a report by the New York Police Department’s CompStat Unit (pdf), which covers the week of July 13-19 and provides percentage change statistics across a range of time frames, both the number of shooting incidents and the number of shooting victims have spiked.
The most pronounced surge is visible in the week-to-date figures for the week ending July 19, with 77 shooting victims and 64 shooting incidents this year, compared to 25 shooting victims and 20 shooting incidents last year. That’s a 208 percent increase in shooting incidents and a 220 percent increase in victims, relative to the comparable week in 2019.
On Saturday morning in Queens, a gunman killed off-duty corrections officer John Jeff with his own department-issued service weapon as he was walking with a colleague. He later died in hospital with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Police are still searching for the suspect.
In Brooklyn, a 47-year-old died in Prospect Lefferts on Parkside Avenue and Ocean Avenue on Saturday. The victim was discovered with two gunshot wounds to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The NYPD has repeatedly complained that last year’s bail reforms let criminals stay out of jail even after repeated arrests. Another contributing factor to the recent surge in violence could be that as the city was hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, many city services were curtailed or shut down, with courts adjudicating only the most pressing cases. Others, such as those involving gun possession, have piled up.
“We have over 1,000 people that have been indicted on a gun possession charge, where the cases are open, and they are walking around the streets of New York today,” Michael LiPetri, NYPD chief of crime control strategies, told the NY Post in June.
A monthly comparison, which looks at the number of shooting victims and incidents in a 28-day period in 2020 relative to a comparable period in 2019, shows a 199 percent rise in shooting victims and a 194 percent increase in shooting incidents. The yearly comparison, which looks at year-to-date numbers of shooting victims and incidents between 2020 and 2019, shows a 78 percent and 69 percent rise, respectively.
Meanwhile, the city council, at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recommendation, recently slashed the NYPD budget by $1 billion amid a massive budget shortfall caused by the pandemic lockdown, as well as calls from some politicians to defund the police completely.
The Epoch Times contacted the mayor’s office and the NYPD for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times