NEW YORK — New York, which has long prided itself on being one of the world’s safest cities, is experiencing a surge in crime, with the topic becoming a central theme of a mayoral race set to be decided in June.
Crime was endemic in the Big Apple in the 1970s and 1980s when America’s largest metropolis was gripped by a budgetary crisis, but it has been on a continuous downward trend since the mid-1990s.
However, the picture has deteriorated drastically since last summer. What initially looked like a byproduct of the movement against police violence following George Floyd’s murder and social dislocation caused by the pandemic appears no longer to be the case.
From knife att…
Keep on reading: Rising crime takes center stage in New York mayoral race