In addition, most of the few detainees have been released due to the criminal reform and fear of the coronavirus in prisons
Impunity and frustration fuel violence
On average, Police arrested at least one suspect in only 483 of the 1, 544 shootings in 2020, a rate of only 41. 7%, based on NYPD data as of 29 December.
The exact number of individuals caught up to 29 December was 544, an average of approximately 1.2 people for each shooting. But of these 544 accused, only 483 (70%) are currently in state or municipal custody, according to NYPD.
Among the unsolved cases is the shocking stray bullet murder of a baby on 12 July, caught in a long-running feud between rival gangs from Bedford-Stuyvesant, in front of her mother.
“It has been difficult,” she said recently Samantha Gardner, the baby’s paternal grandmother. “My son is not well. He has taken it very seriously. On holidays, instead of celebrating, he goes to the cemetery. ”
Critics offer different reasons : unemployment and slowdown in police work , as agents see a decline in morale amid the coronavirus, NYPD riots and budget cuts.
The dissolution of the city’s crime fighting unit , which consisted of 1200 civilian officers roaming the streets in an effort to seize weapons, has also been linked to the increase in shootings.
In both months after the New York Police Department disbanded the unit and reassigned the 600 officers in mid-July, shootings increased 254%.
