Violent Crime Wave Makes Downtown NYC Slightly Less Not-Dangerous!S

How bad is it out there? So bad that innocent citizens are being assaulted in fawncy downtown NYC much more than they were last year! Panic! How bad is it really? It's not that bad:

The Post reports: It's time to get your fucking guns out, downtown party people:

Downtown Manhattan, the city's party mecca, has been hit by an alarming spike in vicious street violence.

Assaults in Greenwich Village lead the frightening upturn, with a whopping 43 percent increase so far this year compared with the same period in 2008.

Crime's also up in Tribeca and the East Village and the LES! Is it the angry poors finally seeping out of their own neighborhood and doing some reverse gentrification? Probably not! Police blame it on drunk party people—not a classic sign of a painful recession!


Take a look at the Post's scary crime chart , at left. The first thing you should note is that the figure for the East Village should be 27.7%, not 42.9%. [You can look these things up, too!].

Now, consider the very, very worst neighborhood on here: the shadowy streets of Greenwich Village. Yes, year-to-date felony assaults are up by almost 43%. What does that mean? It means there have been 40 assaults so far this year, 12 more than this time last year. That means that, on average, there have been about two more assaults every three weeks, in the entire precinct. Not exactly South Bronx 1985 numbers. Oh and look, in that same precinct, robbery, burglary, and grand larcenies are all down by double digits, and the murder count for the year is 0. Facts which did not find their way into the Post's public service piece about the "VIOLENT CRIME WAVE."

Although I did once see a dude get knocked the fuck out in broad daylight on 14th and 6th!

In conclusion you are still much safer walking around Greenwich Village than, say, trying to steal Col Allan's drink.
[NYP. Also Alex Balk has a theory on this stuff. Pic of typical downtown NYC crime via Flickr.]