Guns are back with a vengeance on Bronx streets

Guns are back with a vengeance on Bronx streets - gun arrests are down in the double digits. In some precincts, gun arrests are down as much as 50% or more, while shootings there are up in the 30% range. The percentages are high, but the numbers are nowhere near as bad as the bad old days of the early '90s, when crack cocaine drug wars were littering the streets with bodies and emergency rooms with shooting victims. As of Oct. 5, there were 100 murders in the Bronx so far this year, compared to 88 for the same period last year - a 13.6% jump. Two years ago, murders were down 13%. Citywide, the numbers were 400 homicides versus 359 in 2007, up 11.4%. Two years ago, they were down 8.6%. Some 383 people have been shot in the borough, compared to 359 last year - a 6.6% jump. Citywide, shootings are up 7.2%, with 1,420 victims compared to 1,324 last year. Gun arrests are down 20.2% in the Bronx, and 12.3% citywide. That compares to a 25.6% Bronx decline, and a 16% citywide drop two years ago. "There was a time when the heat was on, and you'd leave your gun at home," said one veteran Bronx detective. "If you got into a beef, at least you couldn't pull it out right there on the street." One of the key questions police have to answer, experts say, is whether crime-fighting strategies have pushed crime as low as it can go, or if there may be a new trend, such as a rising youth population, that calls for new tactics. Hard economic times ahead, in a borough with a quarter of the population already living below the federal poverty line, could also create a whole set of crime problems. Robberies have already started creeping up in the borough, rising 5.6% so far this year, compared to a .3% increase two years ago. One possible police response could be to resurrect or bolster some crimefighting methods, such as the citywide street crime unit that focused on getting guns off the streets. One thing for certain, in police stationhouses and squadrooms across the Bronx, the general talk is that shootings are way out of hand, with guns now commonplace on the streets, particularly among youths and young men.
"These young kids are out of control," said one Bronx homicide detective. "It seems to be a trend every few years where you have younger kids involved, teenagers that are running the streets."