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The Big Apple has seen a staggering 80% enhance within the variety of youngsters arrested for theft and a 23% hike in children arrested for felony assaults up to now this yr, based on troubling NYPD knowledge obtained by The Post.
So far this yr, 816 teenagers throughout the 5 boroughs have been collared for theft in comparison with 451 in the identical interval final yr.
The variety of children arrested for felony assault has elevated to 276 from 225, based on the latest NYPD knowledge out there.
Arrests for rape are up 44%, from 9 to 13.
Kevin O’Connor, who was in control of the division’s youth division earlier than his retirement earlier this yr, blamed the staggering will increase on the Raise the Age regulation.
The legal justice reform pushed by the state’s Democratic majority was enacted in 2018 and bumps up the age of legal accountability to 18 from 16.
That means generally, anybody youthful would not be charged as adults.
It permits for exceptions for some violent crimes and a few gun offenses.
“This is Raise the Age on steroids,” O’Connor mentioned. “These youngsters haven’t any repercussions. They get arrested and launched, arrested and launched.”
Juvenile crimes aren’t tracked as a result of Family Court paperwork are sealed and there isn’t anyplace to place the juveniles in order that they get out and commit extra crimes, he famous.
“So inside 10 hours even when they’re remanded by a judge,” he mentioned, “they’re launched as a result of there’s nowhere to place them.”
One latest, and disturbing, instance is the 14-year-old who allegedly randomly punched a French vacationer in Midtown on May 6.
The NYPD’s Manhattan Warrant Squad arrested George Luna on Wednesday — and realized he was additionally wished for allegedly taking pictures a 79-year-old man within the hip close to 124th Street and Second Avenue May 13, based on courtroom paperwork and a regulation enforcement supply.
Prosecutors requested $30,000 bail and $90,000 bond, however the judge granted $10,000 money and $20,000 bond.
Officials wouldn’t specify what occurred to the teenager due to his age.
“They in all probability let him go along with his mother and father,” the police supply mentioned.
Another case this month concerned a 15-year-old who stabbed a teen seven occasions, leaving him lined in blood on a bench in downtown Brooklyn’s McLaughlin Park throughout a squabble over sun shades.
Chozen Sanders, 18, had simply gotten out of faculty on May 3 on the Assembly School for Law and Justice on Adams Street when a teen he didn’t know snatched his sun shades.
“So I flashed a knife at him to scare him,” {the teenager} mentioned, including that it was his pal’s weapon.
The different boy jumped on him and stabbed him seven occasions, cops mentioned.
Sanders wanted emergency surgical procedure to cease the inner bleeding, mentioned mother Rushanna Sanders.
“You can’t go to parks anymore – you simply can’t,” the mother mentioned, choking again tears. “You simply gotta go to high school and are available dwelling.”
A 15-year-old was arrested and charged with tried homicide, assault and legal possession of a weapon. He was launched from custody.
His title wasn’t launched as a result of he’s a juvenile.
And in April, a 14-year-old was arrested for kicking a 35-year-old Marine within the head whereas his buddies referred to as the person “a cracker” on Randall’s Island, police mentioned.
The sufferer, who requested to stay nameless out of worry for his security, mentioned he was having fun with a picnic along with his girlfriend round 7 p.m. April 14 when he was kicked.
“I noticed who it was and I chased him,” the sufferer mentioned.
The 14-year-old attacker was arrested two days later and charged with assault as a hate crime, police mentioned.
“Unfortunately, our authorities doesn’t do something about [teen crime],” the vet mentioned. “Instead, we sit there and slap them on the wrist and allow them to go stroll free on the streets once more.”
Deputy Inspector Eric Robinson, commanding officer of the NYPD’s public data division, chalked up hovering youth arrests to “a number of good work being finished” by cops, explaining that the relationships between police and communities had improved and cops have been getting extra suggestions that result in arrests.
But O’Connor mentioned one thing’s acquired to vary to carry the numbers down.
“We’re prosecuting 16 and 17-year-olds with child gloves,” O’Connor mentioned. “The judge solely seems on the child for what the child’s in entrance of him for. He’s not trying on the child’s historical past. That’s due to Raise the Age.”
