Shootings way up in two weeks By BRAD HAMILTON Last Updated: 7:49 AM, October 23, 2011 Posted: 11:43 PM, October 22, 2011 Bullets are flying over Broadway -- and everywhere else in the city. The number of people shot surged 154 percent two weeks ago -- to 56 from 22 over the same week last year -- and spiked 28 percent in the last month. Last week tallied another increase in victims -- 22 people had been hit through Friday, including the three victims gunned down outside a Brooklyn school Friday. Last year, only 17 shooting victims were logged for the entire week. The recent gunplay has now pushed the number of shooting victims this year slightly above last years tragic tally -- to 1,484 from 1,451 -- through Oct. 16. Four high-ranking cops point the finger at Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying their rallies pull special crime-fighting units away from the hot zones where theyre needed. Since Occupy Wall Street took over Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, the NYPD has relied heavily on its borough task forces, the departments go-to teams for rowdy crowds. But such protest duty takes the special units away from their regular jobs -- patrolling public housing and problem spots and staking out nightclubs plagued by violence, supervisors said. Normally, the task force is used in high-crime neighborhoods where you have a lot of shootings and robberies, said one source. They are always used when there are spikes in crime as a quick fix. But instead of being sent to Jamaica, Brownsville and the South Bronx, they are in Wall Street. Another NYPD boss is troubled by the resulting slowdown in stop-and-frisks. When OWS marches, as many as 3,000 cops a day could be called on to keep the peace. Thats about 10 percent of the total force. The city is going crazy with demonstrations and protests, and Im lucky if I can get four cars out there, said Deputy Inspector Ted Berntsen, commander of the 13th precinct in Chelsea. As the NYPD deals with depleted ranks, fewer thugs are going to jail. The Organized Crime Control Bureau -- an elite unit of hundreds of cops fighting drug dealers and gun runners -- has seen arrests plummet 19 percent this year. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/...wo_weeks_rajGrOA0bMpTBslidEUgOI#ixzz1bnOZrS80 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/shootings_way_up_in_two_weeks_rajGrOA0bMpTBslidEUgOI Progressive insecurity over the unparallelled success of the Tea Party is leading to greater violence in NYC. But, what do they care? They just want to crap of police cars, ect. _
It's good to see that Don Glock is supporting the Occupy people for once. Obviously the NYC is seriously over-policing the demonstrators (I haven't heard of one violent act by a demonstrator yet) to the neglect of known crime areas and known dangerous criminals. This is a stupid policing decision that should be reversed ASAP.
Ive only heard of a coupla rapes, and protestors craping on cop cars... Oh and there were 700 protestors blocking a bridge, they all went to jail... Then there was the report of thefts at the protest...