New York police are looking for three teenage boys suspected of recently stealing a six-year-old girl’s scooter with at least one of the suspects punching her in the chest during the attack.
According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), the attack took place on July 28. The scooter was estimated to be worth $30.00. The three teenagers in the security footage provided by the authorities appear to be black. The NYPD is requesting help from the public in locating the suspects.
The apparent mugging is just the latest crime in New York City. According to the NYPD, arrests for major felonies “are up nearly 29% so far in calendar 2022, compared with the first seven months of 2021.”
“We know that any crime increase in our city is wholly unacceptable,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell added in a statement. “Everyone who lives, works, and visits here deserves to be safe, and the members of the NYPD will tolerate nothing less – but we cannot do it alone.”
Sewell placed the blame for the increase in crime on illicit firearms, as well as faults within the criminal justice system.
“When violent criminals are willing to carry illegal guns on our streets and brazenly shoot at innocent people, they must face real consequences,” Sewell remarked. “And when rampant, revolving-door recidivism erodes the public’s trust in the criminal justice system, we must make efforts to refocus that system on what matters most: the victims. All of us need to be pulling in the same direction, so that we can best deliver on the public-safety promise we make to every New Yorker, every day.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) ran for election in 2021 with a promise that he would be tough on crime. Earlier this week, a journalist asked Adams when that campaign pledge would become a reality.
“When will we expect crime to drop?” the reporter said. “You’ve been in office seven months; you ran on a platform of lowering crime. When we can expect to see those decreases in crime?”
Adams claimed that his administration is doing everything it can to curtail violence, but that the public needed to jump aboard and help out.
“When we get all our partners on board. We’re doing our job,” he responded. “And we also need the public on board.”
“The public must really — as they have indicated in polling — that public safety is a major issue … we’re doing our job,” he said in an exasperated tone.
“NYPD is taking thousands of guns off the streets. We are making arrests. [There are] a high level of arrests for violent crimes. You’re seeing with that — that which is in our span of control, we’re doing it to the maximum,” he remarked.
The exchange can be seen here: