Nearly 40 people were shot and three were killed during 4th of July weekend celebrations in New York City, police said.
The violence followed the city’s decision to strip more than $1 billion in funding from the New York Police Department (NYPD) and disband a prominent anti-crime unit.
A total of 39 people between midnight Saturday and around 6:00 a.m. Sunday were struck by gunfire across four Big Apple Boroughs. Three men — all in their 20s — were shot dead, police sources told the New York Post.
Disgraceful the amount of people shot in Manhattan North in the past 24 hours! Where are the elected officials and violence interupter!! The community is suffering!!
— NYPD Patrol Borough Manhattan North (@NYPDPBMN) July 5, 2020
Thirteen stabbings ran concurrent with the slew of firearm incidents over Independence Day weekend, according to the Post.
The city has experienced a 205% increase in shooting incidents between June 2 and June 15 compared to the same time period in 2019, according to the Post. A total of 205 shootings in June 2020 make the monthly count the worst NYC has seen in 24 years, the Post reported.
The uptick in violence comes amid local leaders’s decision to disband a 600-member plainclothes crime division on June 15. Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also stripped the NYPD of over $1 billion in funding following a contentious vote on July 1, USA Today reported. (RELATED: A Sex Offender, A Man Arrested 138 Times, A Husband Accused Of Threatening To Shoot His Wife — These Are A Handful Of Those Released Under NY’s Bail Reform)
“We will say it again: the Mayor and the City Council have surrendered the city to lawlessness,” Patrick Lynch, president of the NYC Police Benevolent Association, the largest law enforcement union in the state, said in a release, according to USA Today “Things won’t improve until New Yorkers hold them responsible.”
An NYPD division — appalled by the 4th of July shootings — went after Manhattan’s district attorney Cy Vance on Twitter.
Manhattan DA Cy Vance where are you? No show at any shooting scene!!! Our community is being attacked, there have been 24 people shot in the city in the past 24 hours….Where Are You!!!
— NYPD Manhattan South (@NYPDPBMS) July 5, 2020
Reforms and cuts to police departments follow the death of George Floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes, video showed. Floyd’s death sparked heightened tensions between law enforcement and minority populations, sparking nationwide unrest and numerous changes to city policing.
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