Felony assaults on New Yorkers are continuing to rise across New York City, specifically in the borough of Manhattan, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) exhausts city resources on a 34-count felony case against former President Donald Trump.
In 2022, violent crime in New York City rose 23 percent, with more than 126,500 arrests made for murder and non-negligent manslaughter, robbery, felony assault, rape, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny auto — the seven major crime categories.
Felony assaults, often random attacks on New Yorkers by career criminals with extensive rap sheets, totaled more than 26,000 last year. This represents a 60 percent increase from 2008, when felony assaults were at a significant low.
NYPD / BODY CAMS+ /TMX
Even compared to recent prior years, felony assaults in 2022 were way up.
For example, felony assaults rose 14 percent in 2022 compared to 2021, 27 percent compared to 2020, 26 percent compared to 2019, 29 percent compared to 2018, and 30 percent compared to 2017.
Last year’s surge in felony assaults on New Yorkers is now continuing this year.
While murders, rapes, and grand larcenies dropped in January compared to the same time in 2022, felony assaults surged by 15 percent with more than 2,050 arrests made across New York City.
Likewise, in February, felony assaults jumped five percent compared to February 2022, even as murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries, and grand larcenies ticked down.
For all of this year thus far, felony assaults are one of only two crimes among the seven major crimes to experience an increase, with more than 6,200 arrests being made through April 2. Felony assaults, so far, have increased by nine percent since 2022, by 32 percent since 2021, and by more than 62 percent since 2010.
NYPD / BODY CAMS+ /TMX
Felony assaults in Manhattan, where Bragg prosecutes crimes, have prominently spiked.
In the northern neighborhoods of Manhattan — covering parts of Midtown, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Harlem, Lincoln Center, Lenox Hill, and other areas — there have been 622 felony assaults as of March 26, a three percent increase since last year.
There have been 13 felony assaults in the Upper East Side from January 1 through the last week of March, along with nearly 30 in the Lenox Hill and Upper West Side neighborhoods. All three neighborhoods are considered some of Manhattan’s safest and priciest areas to live.
Meanwhile, in the southern neighborhoods of Manhattan, such as the Financial District, the Lower East Side, Tribeca, Greenwich Village, and the Flatiron District, felony assaults have risen almost 25 percent this year as of March 26 compared to the same period in 2022.
In less than the first three months of this year, there have been almost 500 felony assaults reported in the southern neighborhoods of Manhattan compared to less than 400 reported during the same period last year.
As Breitbart News chronicled, Bragg has built his reputation as Manhattan district attorney by dropping felony charges, decreasing felony convictions, downgrading felonies to misdemeanors, and failing to request bail for felony suspects.
