After Corona
The next outbreak: wave of violence shakes New York
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Locked crime scene in New York: After the corona pandemic, the metropolis on the US east coast is facing a new wave of violence.
© Gregor Fischer / DPA
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While the corona infection numbers in New York City are skyrocketing again, the metropolis is also struggling with a wave of violence. The incidents are also increasing in other US cities. The causes are puzzled.
Anthony Robinson was holding his young daughter when he was attacked. In early July, the 29-year-old was walking with the girl in the Bronx, New York, when a car pulled up to his left. A video released by the police shows an arm with a gun aimed at Robinson. A short time later he is dead. These are scenes like these that are currently occurring much more frequently in New York and in many other cities in the USA than in previous years – and are very worrying.
The causes of the wave of violence in the US east coast metropolis are puzzled. It is the third outbreak to preoccupy New York and other cities in the United States this year: first came the coronavirus, then the nationwide anger over racism and police violence – and now the number of shootings and murders is rising significantly. It cannot be ruled out that all developments are related.
New York: Gun violence increases dramatically
The numbers that have shocked many New Yorkers in recent weeks and are reminiscent of times long past are in any case clear: In June 2020, the number of incidents with gunshots in the eight million metropolis increased from 89 to the previous year 205 – an increase of 130 percent. The number of murders climbed by 30 percent with 39 deaths.
And the violence didn’t stop. On the weekend of Independence Day around July 4th alone, according to media reports, 64 people were hit by gunfire – ten of them died. Even so, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is still a long way from its darkest hours: 1990, when crime was out of control and there were 2,262 murders. In 2019, however, there were only 319.
Chicago: Highest murder rate in 20 years
The development in New York is not an isolated case in the USA. Similar trends exist in a number of other cities, particularly Chicago, which could hit the highest homicide rate in more than 20 years in 2020. Just a week ago, 15 people were injured, some seriously, in a shooting there. US President Donald Trump announced last week that he would be sending federal security forces to the metropolis and other parts of the country because of the “shocking explosion of killings”.
The government has already intervened in Portland, Oregon on the US west coast, where heavily armed security forces can currently be seen on the streets night after night. However, it is not about a rising crime rate, but about the ongoing protests against racism and police violence after the violent death of the African American George Floyd in a police operation at the end of May. The city had expressly spoken out against the dispatch of emergency services, but these are now fueling the protests during night clashes from the perspective of observers.
Police: More criminals on the street because of Corona
New York has threatened to sue if federal security forces are deployed, saying it can handle the wave of violence in the city on its own. Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the side effects of the corona pandemic for the increase in serious crimes. It is about the fact that “the judicial system is not working, that people have been tense for months,” he said. What the mayor did not mention, but the police did, is the sharp increase in the number of particularly vulnerable prison inmates due to the crisis, who were released early because of the virus that was rampant in the prison system.
“Currently, the number of paroled people involved in shooting or murders is at a 15-year high,” the NYPD said. The police also share responsibility for the development of the city’s reforms, which among other things should reduce the number of inmates from the notorious Rikers Island prison – and therefore, according to the police, bring more criminals onto the streets.
Police chief denounces politics
There were also public demands for a restructuring of the police force. The New York City Council responded by transferring $ 1 billion of the NYPD’s $ 6 billion budget, along with a few thousand officials, to another agency. Since then, the 36,000 police officers and their boss Dermot Shea have been seething.
In a punctured internal police video, he described the local politicians as “cowards”: “They fail in every possible measure to be leaders and they stab at the men and women of this police department.” On the other hand, accusations came from the city council that the police might not be as effective as usual – also because officials felt unjustly in the pillory in view of the nationwide protests and cuts.
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