Crime Rates in New York City - Research Paper Example

Research Paper, Law Research Paper, Law Summary David Goodman’s article reports on a press conference called by Mayor Bill de Blasio regarding crime rates in New York City. Goodman commences his reports by referring to Mayor Bill’s statement. Bill asserted that his opponents feared that he would mess the City. Contrary to their expectation, Mayor Bill said that the City become safer than before. Individuals regard robberies as the commonest crime in the street. In his report, Goodman points that the statistics on robbery went down to 14 percent in the entire New York City in 2014, when compared to the data obtained from the previous year. Theft of Apple devices, which constitutes grand larcenies dropped by 3 percent. Goodman reports that the year 2013 recorded a low data on homicide at 335. The year 2014 saw this record broken for the past two decades, when 290 killings in the New York City occurred in a span of 11 months of the same year. Mr. de Blasio overlooked the rhetoric, which his critics made (Goodman, 2014). As Goodman reports, Mr. de Blasio’s press briefing was one that he demonstrated confidence when he said that the crimes in New York City profoundly reduced. Another category of crime with reduced in statistic was shooting. The article informs that 1000 shootings occurred within the first 11 months of the year 2014; however, it represented only 4 percent increase. The article reports that the briefing on crime statistic in New York City came earlier in comparison to the dates of previous years. Goodman points that the early announcement by Mr. de Blasio timely preceded Staten Island grand jury’s decision (Goodman, 2014). The grand jury investigates the justification of the police officers’ action in cases of shooting. The article reports on two case, in which police officers killed civilians and termed it accidental. First, is Eric Garner’s case, who died in July 2014 during an arrest. Second, is Akai Gurley’s death, which occurred after a shooting by a police officer. Gurley met his death while touring a Brooklyn housing development. The police described that his death was accidental. Surprisingly, the two were blacks. Mr. Goodman notes that Mr. William Bratton planned to roll a pilot program that would see police officers wear body cameras. He also announced the commencement of retraining officers at the patrol department. Regarding statistics on marijuana, Goodman reports that the officer announced 61.2 percent decline in arrests, which took place in November 2014, owing to the new policy (Goodman, 2014). The decline in the New York’s crime rate reflects a descending trend nationally from heights of violent crimes witnessed in the 1990s. Goodman says that the reduction in the City’s crime rate answered the pertinent question, which asked if a low number of stop-and-frisk encounters could stir up crimes again. The report shows that Mr. Bratton announced the expected decline in such stops to below 50,000 from over 685,000 that occurred in 2011. Goodman also notes an announcement done by former mayor, Michael Bloomberg. In his statement at Madison Square, Michael noted a decline in homicides to 419 cases. Mr. de Blasio stated an overall decline in crime to 18.6 percent. Goodman informs that Mr. Blasio’s announcement happened at a community gymnasium situated in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. According to Goodman, the figures presented by Mr. de Blasio contradict those announced by the city’s public housing developments. Some presented a double-digit decline in crime rates (Goodman, 2014). However, some such as Bushwick Houses in Brooklyn, presented high violence and shooting. Goodman concludes his report by referring to Robert Boyce statement that increased decline in crimes provides detectives with sufficient time to conduct investigations. Analysis Goodman used a number of sources to compile the report, which explicitly presents the decrease in crime rate in New York City. The prime source of Goodman report is the news conference that the Mayor de Blasio called. Goodman in a shrewd manner picks key points from Mr. de Blasio’s briefing to compile the report. It is open from the title of the article that it represents largely the mayor’s statement. The report entails some direct quotes from the mayor, which confirms how authoritative the report is. Goodman’s report is highly comprehensive; it brings both the viewpoints and data presented by the mayor and his commissioner, Mr. Bratton. After the news conference of Mr. de Blasio and his commissioner Mr. Bratton, the public started presenting their views on social sites. Mr. Goodman synthesized a few of such posting and blended them with other information to come up with his concrete report. For instance, Goodman incorporates Joseph Lhota’s post in his Twitter handle, in which he congratulates Mayor de Blasio and his commissioner for the decline in crime as announced by the duo (Goodman, 2014). In addition, Mr. Goodman gets his information from other public houses within the city of New York. In contrasting the data that Mr. de Blasio announced to those presented by the public housing development, it is inevitable to establish the disparity in crime record from both sources. Sufficient evidence exists to validate the credibility of the source that Mr. Goodman used in compiling the report. For instance, the news conference called by Mr. de Blasio and his commissioner is one that is retrievable from the archives of the New York Times. Mr. Goodman also utilized reliable information from several other departments within New York City. Data from public housing development are valid and authoritative. The overall attitude of the article tends to agree with the statement that crime rates in New York City is reducing. Mr. Goodman’s article is biased in the way it reports on certain issues. Instances, where police officers kill civilians, are quite many. The article only reports on the two blacks, Mr. Gurley, and Mr. Garner, who police accidentally shot dead. Therefore, it fails to provide any statistics of such killing on other races. However, Goodman exposes the contradiction of the recorded data from different department, which show varied record on the decline in crime in New York City. Reference Goodman, J. D. (2014, December 2). New York Crime Keeps Falling, Mayor de Blasio Says; Cites Years of “Momentum.” The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/nyregion/violent-crime-in-new-york-has-dropped-to-historic-low-mayor-de-blasio-says.html Read More