Bullets Under Broadway
In a bit of comically bad timing, the NYPD reported last week that subway crime was reaching historically low levels. The comforting new statistics, however, came on the same day it was reported that the fourth subway shooting in the past month had taken place the day before. No one was hurt this time, but hundreds of commuters were sent screaming when a deranged man pulled a gun at the Wall Street 4/5 station and began firing.
Though it might have been nothing more than an unfortunate (but funny!) coincidence for the NYPD, to the average New Yorker, it sure didn't sound like subway crimes were down all that much.
Then on Thursday, it was reported that the murder rate had taken another amazing, record-setting plunge. Lowest in 40 years, we were told.
But nobody seems to remember that last March, the PBA stepped forward and admitted that all these "perpetually plummeting crime rate" stories were a scamthe simple result of crimes not being reported, or being downgraded to less serious offenses, all in an effort to make the NYPD and the mayor look good. Now why would they want to do that?
Case in point: two weekends ago, 39-year-old John Solis was assaulted by two men as he left a gay-pride street fair in Chelsea. He suffered a broken wrist after the men beat him with a baseball bat. Yet when he called the cops, they all but blew him off, not even getting out of their car to take his statement. A report was finally filed four days later, and only after much persistence on Solis' part.
"Every time I pick up the paper, I see crime is down in the city," he later told the Post. "Well, that's because you have to fight tooth and nail to report a crime."