April 9, 2004
Bite Your Tongue
"Maybe he spoke too soon: Less than 12 hours after Mayor Michael Bloomberg touted the Bronx's nine days without shootings, gunshots rang out in the borough and three men were wounded Wednesday night."
Funny, in a not-funny way, how things like that work. I understand why the city does it, but this sort of back-patting bothers me. Another example: Subway Crime Continues Fall To Decades-Low Level. Crime is down 2 percent. Ho hum. Big deal.
"From January 1 through Sunday, there were 14 fewer felonies and 40 fewer robberies than during the same period last year, according to the NYPD."
That doesn't really seem like a huge decrease to me. Something as simple as weather patterns can have that sort of impact.
"The only crime category that has seen an increase in the subways is grand larceny – usually pick-pocketing and purse snatchings – which is up 6 percent from last year."
Robbery and grand larceny sort of seem like the same thing, but I guess they're not.
"Larceny is defined as the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. It includes crimes such as shoplifting, purse snatching, bicycle thefts, etc., in which no use of force, violence, or fraud occurs. This offense category does not include offenses such as embezzlement, forgery, or bad checks."
"Loosely and generally, robbery in New York is the use of force to illegally obtain someone else's property. Depending on how much force is used (or threatened) and what is used to do the forcing, the robbery is more or less serious."
The site that provided the robbery definition is actually pretty interesting. It's essentially a brochure for some Queens lawyer, but they provide a lot of (slanted) information. The info starts out being helpful, but usually ends up with "you need a lawyer right now!" Gee, they just happen to provide legal services.
categories:
General
posted by at April 9, 2004 1:52 AM
