Stabbings and assaults in New York will increase 26% in 2023
Across New York City, stabbings and lacerations are on the rise this year — up 26% since 2019, according to disturbing new NYPD data obtained by The Post.
From January 1 to August 13, the city saw 3,365 non-fatal knife attacks, compared to 2,666 four years ago. The number is also 5% higher than the same period last year, when there were 3,208 non-fatal incidents of knife violence.
So far this year, 53 people have died from stabbings – a shocking 29% increase from 41 in 2019. The number is down 23% from 2022, when 69 people were stabbed.
“Everyone carries them now,” said a Brooklyn police officer with more than 20 years in the service, who also said knives are just easier and cheaper to get than a gun — and far less risky.
“You stop [someone with a knife] and they say, “I wear it to work.” It’s probably a bullshit response. . . . It’s like they know what to say to avoid arrest. And they know even if you arrest them, it’s a subpoena. . . . You know nobody goes to jail for it.
“You see that all the time lately. That’s crazy.”
Experts blamed left-wing reforms passed before the pandemic for the rapid rise in numbers.
In 2019, the then governor. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill ending the criminal ban on gravity knives and certain folding pocket knives.
“It’s the same old story over and over again. Bad policies, lack of enforcement because of those bad policies, and that’s what you’re dealing with. . . . Now everyone’s trying to figure out, “Why are there so many knife attacks?” Gosh, get this,” said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant and professor of criminal justice at John Jay College.
Another reason criminals like knives is that they can be hidden – until the moment of attack.
“The knife is easy to hide and you don’t see it until you pull it out,” said Robert LaMonica Sr., a retired NYPD sergeant with 23 years of experience. “It lies in your hand. It’s very hard to see it coming if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
A Brooklyn victim who was impaled in the leg by a knife-wielding maniac on a Brooklyn-bound Line 4 train on June 18 spoke of the terror.
“Just sitting on the train and minding my own business… for someone to just walk by and do what they did is overwhelming,” she said, fighting back tears.
The 28-year-old woman, who wished to remain anonymous, was traveling on the subway at around 4:30 p.m. when she noticed a man walking through the emergency exit at the end of the carriage. Next thing she knew, she was bleeding profusely from her leg.
The cut was so severe that police officers wrapped the limb in a tourniquet before taking her to Bellevue Hospital, where she received 30 stitches.
She was one of three women who were attacked in a subway rampage that day by a man whom police have since identified as Kemal Rideout.
Rideout, 28, was arrested on June 20 and is currently being held without bail in Rikers on three counts of aggravated assault.
