NYC'S CRIME SPREE MASKED THIEVERY CONTINUES, SMASH, GRAB, AND MORE

They’re the Villages of the Damned.

Major crimes are surging in both the East and West villages, turning Manhattan’s once iconic arts and culture hubs into cesspools of rampant property thieves.

The Sixth Precinct, which patrols the West Village, saw an 84 percent spike in major crime rates when compared to 2021’s year-to-date numbers — the highest increase among Manhattan’s 22 precincts and nearly two times the citywide jump of 44 percent — NYPD data shows. The Ninth Precinct, which serves the East Village, the Bowery and NoHo, is also seeing an uptick in property thefts and violent attacks with the total major crime rate jumping 54 percent so far this year compared to the same time period in 2021, police data shows. MORE AT https://nypost.com/2022/04/23/nyc-crime-spikes-in-manhattans-east-and-west-villages/

AND

Gangs of marauding teens have stormed six Big Apple pharmacies over the past month and made off with a stash of prescription drugs — and police sources say the heists may all be linked.  

The teens have raided five Duane Reade outlets in Manhattan and one Brooklyn pharmacy since Feb. 28, jumping the counters, snatching codeine and other prescription narcotics before running off...The loot has included oxycodone and promethazine, an antihistamine that contains codeine, the sources said. MORE AT THE NY POST HERE.

AND IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 

AOC 2/18/2022--The Post says: AOC’s myth vs. the real harm of NYC crime--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once again constructs a Dickensian fantasy world where every criminal is a saint, and every police action unfair.  “It’s much easier to frame people who steal baby formula and medicine as monsters to be jailed than acknowledge our politics and economic priorities create conditions where people steal baby formula to survive,” she tweeted in response to the NYPD arresting 12 shoplifters in The Bronx.  MORE https://nypost.com/2022/02/18/aocs-shoplifting-myth-vs-real-harm-on-the-poor/

AND WHY SHOPLIFTING IS SOARING ACROSS THE U.S.--AND WILL ONLY GET WORSE, NY POST: Retail crime has been rising throughout the US for the past five years, with organized criminal rings targeting stores everywhere from Woonsocket (Rhode Island) to Greensboro (North Carolina) to Grafton (Wisconsin). MORE AT THE NY POST HERE

UPDATE: IN THE NEWS: NEW YORK TIMES "NON-HISTORIAN" HANNAH-JONES OF 1619 PROJECT FAME, SLAMS SHARPTON ON HIS GET TOUGH ON SHOPLIFTING STANCE, SAYS HE IS NOW BACKING THE "CARCERAL STATE"...& MORE HERE