#NYPD blames reform, ‘animosity towards police’ for spike in shootings

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NYPD Chief of Department Terrence Monahan
Taidgh Barron/NY Post

The NYPD’s top uniformed cop blamed criminal justice reform and “animosity towards police” for Gotham’s recent surge of gun violence.

“The violence, the shootings are up. We haven’t seen this many since 1996,” Chief of Department Terence Monahan told John Catsimatidis on AM 970’s “The Cats Roundtable” — referring to the first three weeks of June seeing 125 shootings, the highest for that window since 1996.

“There are a lot of different reasons for it — starting off with bail reform. Putting people out on the streets… releasing everyone from Rikers… [and] the animosity towards police has been absolutely unbelievable.”

He said that local lawmakers need to step in because the force is “little confused right now” about what communities are calling for when it comes to police reform.

“As I look out there right now, the violence going on, it’s not a good sign,” Monahan said. “And we need some clarity from the City Council and the communities we serve exactly how they want to be policed.”

And Monahan also slammed the new law banning chokeholds by police during arrests as “dangerous.”

“The idea that if somebody is fighting with you and you put your knee on their back… [and] you’re a committing a criminal act, even if you’re fighting for your life… it is a dangerous, dangerous law that they passed for police officers,” Monahan said.

“It took us years and years to get crime down to the level we have it. And to watch it shoot up as it has over the last week or so, it’s bad.”

Overall, crime is down 2.5 percent for the year through June 21, according to NYPD data.