NEW York City is heading back towards the dark days of the 1970s and 80s amid a terrifying surge in violent attacks and other major crimes, the founder of Guardian Angels has warned.
Curtis Sliwa, who founded the revered citizen crime-watch group in 1979, told The US Sun that the current wave of crime and unruly behavior – particularly in the city’s subway system – is in danger of rotting the Big Apple at its core.
“Well the city is certainly sliding back into the abyss,” Sliwa, 67, said in an exclusive interview.
“Current crime levels are not currently anything like what I dealt with 40 years ago when I started the Guardian Angels, or at the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980s – but we’re certainly heading back in that direction, which is worrying.
“Criminals are seeing that there are no ramifications, no consequences, and are just running rampant,” Sliwa added.
“Until city officials and cops actually start doing their jobs, it’s just going to continue to get worse and worse.”
Statistics released by the NYPD earlier this month showed that in the first months of 2022, major crimes have spiked a staggering 45% when compared to the same period last year.
That includes a nearly 44% increase in robberies, a 61% increase in grand larceny incidents, and a 35% increase in rape reports.
Murders are down 7.3 percent overall but spiked by 10% in the month of February, while hate crime attacks have surged by more than 113%.
Before the pandemic, crime rates in NYC reached historic lows for more than three decades before the numbers started to increase at the beginning of 2020, where they’ve continued to climb at a steady pace for the last two years.
