The media is responsible for the persistent and heightened concerns New Yorkers have about crime, New York City mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with a local station.
Adams was confronted with a Siena poll that revealed that 70 percent of New York City residents are either very or somewhat concerned they themselves will be the victim of crime. Eighty-seven percent of city residents think crime is a very serious or somewhat serious problem.
According to Adams, residents “start their day picking up the news, the morning paper, they sit down, and they see some of the most horrific events that may happen throughout the previous day.”
“Plays on your psyche,” said Adams. “But my mission is to move people from what they felt to what they’re feeling.”
Adams’s comments come after a recent interview with Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg in which he admitted he, too, fears crime in the city.
“When one of my family members gets on the train, I get a knot in my stomach,” said Bragg, claiming that he thinks this despite transit crimes being down.
While there was a four percent dip in major crime last month, transit crimes jumped by more than 18 percent compared to last year, with 195 incidents compared to just 165 in June 2022.
Per Adams, the city is humming, “but if you lead off every day with some of the horrific incidents that take place in a city with 8.5 million people, there’s a feeling that you have.”
New York Fox5’s anchor Rosanna Scotto retorted that she and her colleagues “just report on things that actually happen.”
The Siena poll saw 39 percent of New York City respondents say they’ve never been as worried about personal safety as they are today.
“New Yorkers across the entire state agree that crime is a serious problem, but New York City residents are more likely to see crime as a serious problem in their community and as a threat to them personally compared to those that live in either the metro suburbs or upstate,” explained Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute. “And Gotham residents are two or more times more likely to have taken a self-defense class, joined a neighborhood watch, moved or purchased a gun in order to protect themselves than are residents of other parts of the state.”
Forty-six percent of New York City residents said they have witnessed violent or threatening behavior among others in a public setting. Sixteen percent said they were the victims of a burglary and sixteen percent said they have been physically assaulted.
“Crime isn’t just something that happens to others far away, according to New Yorkers,” Levy added.