NYC Shootings Up 28% as Police Divert Resources to OWS Protests

John on October 23, 2011 at 4:24 pm

Scarce resources, isn’t that always the problem? Since the protests began, shootings in other areas of the city have spiked:

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…

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 they’re needed.

Since Occupy Wall Street took over Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, the NYPD has relied heavily on its borough task forces, the department’s 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.”

Of course the protesters have a right to protest, but there is a cost associated with it. Police have spent more than $3 million so far dealing with OWS. Pulling those cops from their high crime areas has also resulted in a spike in violent crime. At some point the city needs to say enough, limit the time and place these protests take place, and get back to work dealing with the real troublemakers.