NYPD Blasted For 'Scapegoating' Bail Reform Amid Crime Spike

NEW YORK CITY — NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell yet again pinned a recent spike in citywide crime on a familiar target: bail reform.

"We're arresting the same people over and over again," she said Thursday.

But Sewell's argument was met with a harsh response by criminal justice advocates Friday. They argued that Sewell is "scapegoating" bail reform.

An arrest is not an indicator of guilt, they said.

"The City’s statistics show that more than half of NYPD arrests are dismissed each year for lack of sufficient evidence," said Marvin Mayfield, director of organizing at Center for Community Alternatives, in a statement. "This is the importance of bail reform - to protect New Yorkers from being condemned to the deathtrap of Rikers Island based on little more than the NYPD’s word.”

The brouhaha over Sewell's words stemmed from a news conference Thursday in which she and other NYPD officials unveiled monthly crime statistics.

Overall crime spiked 31 percent in New York City in June as the number of shootings dropped, the crime data show.

But the dip in gun violence was almost immediately undercut by a bloody Independence Day weekend that saw more than 40 shootings, according to crime data.

NYPD brass Thursday released a fresh batch of monthly crime statistics that showed a decidedly mixed bag for city dwellers increasingly worried about crime. Overall crime spiked 31 percent in the city last month, the data shows.

But shootings and murders fell 24.2 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively, compared to June 2021, according to the statistics.

Sewell touted NYPD efforts that she said helped drive shootings down.

"This is real, tangible progress in our fight against violence in this city, and it is not a coincidence or accident," she said.

But Sewell was swift to note that June's shooting drop didn't last long.

She said there were 43 shooting incidents over the July 4 holiday weekend, with 58 people shot and seven killed.

The July 4 weekend was particularly violent even by the city’s recent standards. During the same holiday weekend last year, there were 27 shootings and 32 people shot, the New York Post reported.

Indeed, the shooting incidents over the holiday weekend were roughly a third of all shootings — 125 — last month, according to data.

Police officials said 20 percent of June’s shooting were preceded by either a 311 or 911 call.

A third of shootings last month occurred between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., with 40 percent being classified as gang-related, officials said.

Ten teens last months were either the victims or suspected perpetrators of gun violence, officials said.