Spate Of Anti-Semitic Incidents Behind Spike In Hate Crimes; NYPD Says
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Crime in New York City hit a new low for the month of February, but hate crimes are up -- owing largely to a spate of anti-Semitic incidents.
On Wednesday, Chief Dermot Shea broke down the numbers, and cited a trend that would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago.
"We had nine days in February, where in New York City in its entirety we did not record a shooting incident," he said.
As 1010 WINS Juliet Papa reported, shooting incidents are down nearly 36 percent since last year, but hate crimes have spiked.
"We're up 24 crimes versus last year, 55 percent increase from the start of this year -- anti-Semitic is up 94 percent, with 17 of those 24," Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said.
Officials are increasing patrols and plan to do more of that before Passover.