Brooklyn’s crime statistics for the first quarter are looking none too good. Three months into the new decade felonies are way up, the Daily News reports, with almost 70 percent of Brooklyn police precincts seeing an increases in robberies, burglaries, grand larceny or auto theft of twenty percent or more. Last week Mayor Bloomberg blamed rising city crime rates on budget cuts, but Ft. Greene Councilwoman Letitia James gives an alternate explanation.
She blames the spike in crime on borough joblessness. "You have all these kids hanging out without jobs and it's combustible; that and a decrease in the number of cops on the streets is a bad combination," said James. "That combination has lead to, and will lead to, an increase in violent crime." Some of the steepest increases were observed in Sunset Park/Windsor Terrace where burglaries were up 120 percent from 25 to 55 and around Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill, where they climbed 104 percent. Rapes and homicides were a growing concern in some neighborhoods, lincluding Clinton Hill.
After Mayor Bloomberg called the rising crime rates “worrisome” last month one Flatbush citizen vowed not to let illegal activity in the borough slip out of control. To that end, he’s organizing 50 volunteers to form a neighborhood watch. "I'm seeing the shootings and I'm seeing the muggings and I refuse to sit by while things go backwards to where they were before," said 70th Precinct Community Council President Ed Powell.
