Concrete jungle where dreams are made
Stunning
There was 9k in attendance in the Bronx on Sunday afternoon. Thatâs the estimate anyway. They let so many kids in for free that itâs hard to give an accurate total. A great night had back in Mulligans in Yonkers.
Shootings in New York City dropped by about 25 percent through the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, extending a downward trend after a spike in violent crime during the pandemic.
The sharp drop, which mirrored similar decreases across the United States, came amid widespread fears about crime in the city, which officials have blamed for keeping workers and suburbanites cloistered in their homes.
At a briefing on Thursday, Edward Caban, the acting police commissioner, said that shootings had declined for 13 consecutive weeks. The numbers were released at the beginning of summer, when violence historically rises, but he said he was âconfidentâ that the departmentâs positive streak would continue in the summer.
âIt is no coincidence,â Mr. Caban said. âFrom the beginning of this administration, we made the fight against gun violence our top priority.â
Through Sunday, reports of five of the seven offenses that the Police Department ranks as major felonies had gone down, while two increased, police data show. Murders, rapes and burglaries decreased by about 10 percent each; robberies fell nearly 5 percent. But car thefts increased 18 percent and felony assaults by 6 percent.
Michael Lipetri, chief of crime control strategies, tied the increase in car thefts to the ease of stealing certain models of cars. âYou could basically steal a Hyundai or a Kia in seconds,â he said on Thursday.
Transit crimes, which have overall fallen by nearly 4 percent this year, increased by about 19 percent over the past month compared to the same period last year, according to Police Department data. Officials did not shed light on the spike at the news conference.
Crime data is a âroller coaster,â said Jeffrey A. Fagan, a professor at Columbia Law School. Causality, he said, is âalmost impossible to prove,â though police departments often take credit.
Crime goes up, crime goes down, people are alarmed and the police department changes its tactics,â he said. âWhatever changes theyâve made, they donât seem able to interrupt this cycle.â
âWhat theyâre observing in New York is happening all over the country,â Mr. Fagan said.
At the beginning of last year, as the pandemic eased and people began returning to their routines, the city struggled to stem an increase in violence.
Mayor Eric Adams, whose tenure began in 2022, made reversing the trend, specifically reining in gun violence, a central goal. Mr. Adams appointed a âgun violence czar.â He also expanded a jobs program and Saturday Night Lights, which offers activities for children between the ages of 11 and 18.
But the crime-fighting approaches of Mr. Adams and the Police Department have also been met with criticism.
Last year, the department announced an initiative designed to enforce what they called quality-of-life crimes, focusing on things like public drinking, urination and disorderly groups. Critics said that the enforcement is a return to âbroken windowsâ policing, the enforcement of low-level offenses in an effort to prevent more serious crimes, which they said results in harassment.
In June, a court-appointed monitor found that anti-crime units, then under the leadership of the former commissioner, Keechant Sewell, were still stopping, frisking and searching too many people, despite assurances from Mr. Adams that new policies and training would prevent the problem. A report from The Citythis week found that there had been a 600 percent increase in police vehicle pursuits in the yearâs first three months.
For David Caba, vice president at Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, the drop in gun violence that the department emphasized on Thursday reflects the work of social service organizations such as his.
Since the pandemic disruptions have ebbed, his teams, which operate in six zones within the Bronx, have seen shootings and homicides fall, he said. The zones are each made up of about 12 to 15 blocks that have grappled with high rates of violence. One zone has gone over a year without a single shooting or murder, he said.
âIt takes everyone,â he said, adding: âIt ainât just one entity thatâs going to come in and provide a remedy.â
Iâm booked up for a week in December. Iâm already excited.
Staying off the beer now for the next month.
I wanted to go over the weekend the Jets are at home to the Falcons but one of the gurlos was coming up from Limerick to drink Prosecco that weekend and thereâs absolutely no way that can be rearranged
I doubt Iâll take in any live sport this time around 
The MetLife is a hell of a stadium. Worth a visit if time allows, even if itâs only the fucking G*ants you see
Are you gone for the Club Limerick gig?
Nope but I noticed a fair few lads on the flight over dressed head to toe in âLimerick gaa globalâ gear. Two of them had bought those waist height bottles of Jameson in the duty free then as well.
Must be some sort of 2018 all Ireland hurling final reunion on too because Joe canning, Johnny Flynn and Davy gleemon were drinking in the same pub as me
Paddy goes abroad to soak up some foreign culture, and surrounds himself with other paddies. A tale as old as time. Jesus wept.
Shock horror paddy bitter
About another paddy making waves abroad
Enjoy the trip
The kid stays in the picture
Were you in a chopper?