The NYPD union is blaming recent upticks in shootings and stabbings in the city on an "anti-police atmosphere."
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch took to the airwaves on John Catstimatidis' 970 AM radio show Sunday to voice concern that crime is up because the criminals on the street feel emboldened and empowered to go out and commit violent acts, according to The New York Post.
"When you hear that we’re going to not go after quality-of-life issues on the street and we're in an anti-police atmosphere, what happens is the perpetrators on the street, they get emboldened," Lynch said.
Shooting victims increased by 24 percent over a 28-day period that ended on March 27, according to NYPD stats and shooting incidents increased 14 percent in the same period.
While the NYPD data shows that shooting victims were up for the month, they have been on decline overall so far this year.
Lynch told the radio station that criminals know they won't be stopped and frisked, so they are now freely carrying weapons.
"If you look at the words coming from City Hall, the anti-police atmosphere, the anti-police legislation coming out of the City Council, a CCRB that"s not run fairly and impartially but run as a favor bank for City Hall -- where’s a police officer to turn?" Lynch said. "We want to go to work, honestly do our jobs, be supported. But if they’re not supported, they’re second guessed, they hesitate on the street, they're fearful that their livelihood will be lost."
An NYPD spokesman said Sunday that contrary to Lynch's comments, shootings and murders are at all-time lows.
