UWS Mom Starts Anti-Crime Facebook Group, Report Says

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A group of mothers concerned about recent crimes on the Upper West Side started a Facebook group with plans of mobilizing parents to voice their concerns to elected officials, according to reports.

Upper West Sider Elizabeth Carr took to Facebook to form the group "NYC Mommas Quality of Life" after an October shooting that occurred just a block away from a playground on West End Avenue, Fox5 first reported. Since its creation in late October, group membership has swelled to more than 400 members.

"There is a growing sense of unease I think, clearly among several hundred of us that we don't really feel safe," Carr told Fox5.

Fear of crime in the neighborhood were exacerbated by a violent assault that occurred underneath the construction scaffolding at the site of 200 Amsterdam Avenue where a woman suffered broken bones in her face after being punched.

The Upper West Side mom told Fox5 that a recent community meeting with at the NYPD's 20th precinct revealed that the precinct was short-staffed. An early goal of the NYC Mommas Quality of Life group will be to put pressure on elected officials to devote the proper resources to the precinct.

The Upper West Side shooting and assault both drew a lot of media attention, but crime statistics from the two precincts that patrol the neighborhood paint a more complete picture. Murders and rapes are down in both the 20th and 24th precincts, but robberies are on the rise, according to the latest crime numbers posted by the precincts. Assaults in the southern half of the neighborhood have dropped compared to 2018, but have risen by 22 percent above West 86th Street.

The Facebook group's description reads:

We are all NYC moms who care about our neighborhoods and our neighbors; are doing our best to raise our families in this crazy city; are deeply concerned about what seems to be an increase in crime and a decrease in overall quality of life; and want to connect and mobilize to initiate change ourselves and to pressure elected officials and other leaders to acknowledge the scope of these problems and to implement creative, effective solutions to address them.

Check out the full Fox5 report here.