{"id":836817,"date":"2026-06-01T12:49:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836817\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:49:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:49:42","slug":"new-york-may-be-facing-a-crime-trend-even-worse-than-deadly-gang-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836817\/","title":{"rendered":"New York may be facing a crime trend even worse than deadly gang violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

While New York\u2019s leaders have been cheering the city\u2019s steady decline in murder<\/a>, another indicator has been giving public safety advocates pause.<\/p>\n

Homicides and shootings have been on a downward trajectory, but felony assaults exploded<\/a> in early 2021 \u2014 and remain far above their pre-pandemic lows.<\/p>\n

The city has seen just over 11,000 such crimes year-to-date, NYPD data show, essentially unchanged from the same period last year and up 3% versus 2024.<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD officers investigate a stabbing at the 125th & Lexington Avenue subway station in Manhattan on May 12, 2026. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

At the end of last year, the total figure was up 44% versus 2019.<\/p>\n

The trend is alarming in itself. But combined with the decline in murders and shootings, there\u2019s reason to believe it indicates a rise in acts of casual violence \u2014 a sign of more systemic problems to come.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s driving the increase? Gov. Kathy Hochul cited \u201cassaults on public-sector employees\u201d \u2014 including bus drivers and police officers \u2014 and domestic violence.<\/p>\n

These account for about 10% and 40% of incidents, respectively.<\/p>\n

Such incidents have occasionally captured the spotlight, as with the four MTA employees assaulted \u201cwith wrenches, fists and feet,\u201d The Post reported last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

In February, assaults against cops were up 3% over the prior year, per The Post.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s significant is that this increase in violence has come as other, deadlier violence has fallen.<\/p>\n

The decline in homicides is the result of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch doing what works: focusing on the handful of people and places that disproportionately drive violent offenses.<\/p>\n

Rolling up gang members and surging NYPD to hot spots is almost certainly to thank for the city\u2019s record low rates of shootings, too.<\/p>\n

But how do we square the circle of this decline against the increase in aggravated assaults?<\/p>\n

One possible answer: Others, besides the few serial offenders, are getting in on the action.<\/p>\n

Some evidence suggests that\u2019s true. I looked at court data on arrests for felony violations of the state\u2019s assault law.<\/p>\n

In 2025, 62% of those arraigned on a felony assault charge had no prior convictions; 74% had no prior felony convictions.<\/p>\n

Those are both increases against the 2020 figures \u2014 54% and 68%, respectively.<\/p>\n

In other words, people charged with felony assault are now more likely to have no prior convictions \u2014 meaning they\u2019re less likely to be career criminals.<\/p>\n

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Take, for example, 21-year-old Nassadir Tate, charged with punching a 55-year-old man after the victim bumped into Tate on a subway platform. Tate\u2019s victim later died of his injuries.<\/p>\n

Tate had no arrest record<\/a> at the time. A relative told The Post that \u201che\u2019s never gotten into trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

How, then, did he end up punching a man to death? And why do people keep assaulting bus drivers, cops and significant others?<\/p>\n

While violence may be most likely to be perpetrated by a handful of high-frequency offenders, there is also a general level of violent conduct in a society.<\/p>\n

Norms of civic life dictate how we resolve petty disputes \u2014 like someone accidentally bumping into us on a crowded subway platform.<\/p>\n

Those norms are by no means fixed; they are the product of community expectations, cultural representations and, most important, the law.<\/p>\n

When respect for the law declines \u2014 when, for example, public officials advocate for the abolition of prisons and police officers \u2014 people\u2019s behavior can and does shift.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there can be a feedback loop in which lawlessness breeds permission for more lawlessness, creating a runaway cycle that becomes harder and harder to abate.<\/p>\n

The fact that assaults have remained high even as other kinds of violence have declined is a sign that norms may have shifted \u2014 in a worrisome direction.<\/p>\n

Do New Yorkers feel more comfortable now expressing their feelings through violence? Do they feel they have the permission to act out they didn\u2019t five years ago?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to know for certain. But the bigger concern is that this trend toward violent behavior does not seem to be abating.<\/p>\n

And if that\u2019s the case, the city\u2019s peace may not be a lasting one \u2014 and a bigger problem than deadly, rampant gang violence might be rearing its head.<\/p>\n

Charles Fain Lehman is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and senior editor of City Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While New York\u2019s leaders have been cheering the city\u2019s steady decline in murder, another indicator has been giving…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":836818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12937,7824,4219,12784,12939,27813,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,1269,3677,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-836817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-assaults","tag-coronavirus","tag-crime","tag-gangs","tag-jessica-tisch","tag-murders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-opinion","tag-shootings","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116674938570993589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}