It’s a hot spring day in New York City, but Dana Aber stands on Times Square-42 Street underground platform with a heavy leather jacket. Her hands are gloves and pockets in her pockets to hide her jewelry. Although she is trying to look her best, her senses are very sensitive.
“I thought it might be a better protection than a thin coat, in case I was shot,” said Aber, a Manhattan theater actor and writer.
Choosing a dress based on shooting opportunities sounds like a dystopian nightmare, but it is true for many New Yorkers who feel helpless and scared amid a rising tide of crime. The mass shooting at a Brooklyn subway station in April underscored their fears.
To date, the city has recorded a 42.7% increase in serious crime compared to the same period in 2021, according to the New York Police Department. These include a 46.7% increase in robberies, a 54% increase in violent incidents and a 14.9% increase in rape reports. Murder rates dropped by 13.1% compared to last year, but have risen by 9.2% over the past two years.
For New Yorkers like Aber, the fear of ending another crime rate has taken a toll on their city.
“It’s getting more and more of a problem for us, we’re always worried about safety,” said Pilar Weston, 53, who lives in Harlem. “What will happen to me if I take the train? Or if I go on the wrong road? Or if I ride my bike?”
“It’s the worst way of life,” he said.
Harlem had been Weston’s home for decades, but he was beginning to feel less secure, he said. He tries to jump off the train if he can. She chooses her way home carefully. He avoids certain roads at different times, and is “always, always” ready to work.
‘New Yorkers deserve better’
After three decades of historic decline, crime rates throughout New York City began to rise in 2020.
Officials blame the growth for mixed reactions, including changes to the justice system – such as New York’s new bail law – and the proliferation of illegal firearms, which gun organizations and crime groups attribute to the coronavirus epidemic.
The economic and social ills caused by the epidemic have contributed to an increase in crime, as the number of homeless people since the beginning of the epidemic has grown “significantly,” according to Mayor Eric Adams.
In January, Adams announced a comprehensive anti-crime program. It includes an increase in policing, additional resources for the existing city-based seizure unit, new technologies to prevent gunshot wounds and job creation for vulnerable residents. It has also revived a controversial underwear unit in the police force renamed “Neighborhood Security Teams.”
Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell confirmed the plan, saying the NYPD was committed to tackling crime directly.
“The men and women of the New York City Police Department are busy addressing the root causes of criminal behavior,” Sewell said in a statement at the time. “The NYPD will never back down, and the department has made tremendous progress over the decades – and has invested heavily in the communities you serve – to back off in any way. The people of New York deserve better.”
The plan could not arrive soon, according to Margaux Paras. Like most Native Americans in the city, you live with the added concern of hate crime.
Margaux Paras in Bryant Park. Paras, an Asian American, spoke of his fear of being the next victim of hate crime.
“I’m always nervous and worried I’ll be the next person,” said Paras, 35,. “I’m always in danger of panic when I’m on the train or during the day. It’s not safe for us.”
Hate crimes in New York City have risen by 76% so far this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.
Asian Americans are particularly targeted, often due to undue suspicion of the epidemic.
Paras lives in New Jersey but goes to town to study. He has no choice but to continue with his normal routine, but the stress is overwhelming, he says. Sitting on a bench in Bryant Park, Paras recounted the shocking news he heard from family and friends, including one who, he said, was punched in the chest while walking in the park.
He fears that more policing could alienate and even have an adverse effect on communities of color. “Violence behaves like a contagious disease epidemic,” Blain said. “If we want to fix the uptick in violence, we have to start with poverty, the root of all violence, and fix the lack of resources for the youth, as well as mental health.”Carmen Perez-Jordan, CEO of the nonprofit The Gathering for Justice, agrees. The organization’s mission is “to eliminate the racial inequities that permeate the justice system,” according to their website.Having lived in the city for 12 years, Perez-Jordan, 45, says she’s familiar with what over-policing Black and Latino neighborhoods can do. She’s particularly concerned with the reintroduction of plain clothes officers, who in the past have been accused of violating the rights of minorities with controversial tactics like stop-and-frisk searches. These searches, in which police stopped and frisked people they considered suspicious, disproportionately targeted Black and Latino men.”When violent crime rises, it is usually our low-income Black and brown communities that suffer the most, and I would expect what’s happening now to follow that trend,” Perez-Jordan said.She believes the mayor’s plan does little to address underlying factors that have contributed to the crime spike.”What I see isn’t just crime, it’s a gigantic red flag that something deeper is happening in these communities and in these people’s lives,” she said.”We really need to ask ourselves, what compels someone to steal from stores, use drugs in public places, or pick up a weapon and harm someone? What does a person have to go through in order for them to think that those things are okay?” she said.
Standing on the edge of a sun-drenched avenue by Central Park, Perez-Jordan admits the issue hits closer to home than most can imagine. In the past year, she has lost loved ones due to the increase in violent crime, as well as drug overdoses and Covid-19.”A gallon of milk costs $4.62. Rents keep rising unsustainably,” Perez-Jordan said. “Mental health diagnosis have increased, homelessness has skyrocketed, and overdoses and fentanyl deaths have ravaged poor communities. All of this while almost one million Americans died from a virus that has claimed the lives of over six million worldwide during the last two years of a global lockdown.””I think it’s safe to say that we should have seen this coming. People are hurting, people are desperate, and those who have experienced this for their entire lives are fed up,” she said.What New York needs the most, according to Perez-Jordan, are interventions that “actually produce community safety,” such as mental health services, substance abuse counseling, housing programs and more social workers.
‘I should feel safe at home’
Ty Sumter looks back on the “old days” fondly. He smiles, enthusiastically listing everything he used to do in New York when he felt safe walking alone and taking the train home at night.Peaceful routines have become a memory of the past, he says, and a day that goes by without incident is a blessing he doesn’t take for granted.”For someone traveling late nights and early mornings, I’ve seen a lot of scary things. But it’s an everyday thing now,” Sumter said. “As someone who grew up here in the 90s, we had to walk together. We didn’t let our friends take the trains alone. We’re back in those days.”Sumter, 47, a manager at a Trader Joe’s near Union Square, is walking home from work. Despite the blue sky and cheerful buzz of families playing in the nearby park, he’s not tempted to linger.”I love New York more than anything. It’s like finding the entire world in just one place,” Sumter said. “But these crime levels, it makes me not want to do anything anymore. Even in this beautiful weather, I want to walk around but for what? I don’t feel safe. There’s a police station right here, and I still don’t feel safe. I just want to get home.”
Weston shares similar thoughts as she stands outside of a CVS store by the 125th Street subway station in Harlem. She just finished speaking with a friend whose car was broken into yet again. It’s “truly heartbreaking,” she said about the crime surge.”To have to walk through the neighborhood you grew up in, in your own home, constantly looking over your shoulder all the time and everywhere you go — it bothers you a lot doing that in the place you come from,” she said, pointing to her heart.”It’s home,” she said. “I should feel safe at home.”