New York City saw an increase in hate crimes during the month of October, largely driven by a spike in anti-Jewish incidents amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) released its monthly crime statistics for October on Wednesday, which showed an overall downward trend in hard crimes across the Big Apple.
Even though crimes like shootings, murders, burglaries and grand larcenies were decreasing, the five boroughs saw a rise in bias incidents that were investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force.
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Over the month of October, police investigated 101 biased incidents compared to 45 over the same period in 2022, equating to a 124% increase.
Also in October 2022, the task force investigated 22 anti-Jewish incidents, but last month that number surged to 69, or 214% more.
There were no anti-Muslim incidents reported in October 2022, but last month the city investigated a total of eight, according to the statistics.
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When comparing year-to-date statistics, though, hate crimes went down, overall, with 485 incidents investigated through the end of October, compared to 531 during the same period last year.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters last month that hate crimes were on the rise since the conflict between Israel and Hamas intensified Oct. 7, the New York Post reported.
"Hate crime is still down, but since the incident in Gaza, there’s been an uptick," he said, adding that hate crimes were still on a decline, year-to-date.
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Kenney also said most of the antisemitic acts were related to graffiti, aggravated harassment and criminal mischief, noting that the crimes border on free speech "until it takes a weird turn."
Additional noteworthy statistics in the report include an 8.1% drop, or 79 reported shooting incidents in October 2023, compared to 86 in October 2022, extending the 25.7% decrease in shooting incidents experienced year-to-date, or 839 in 2023 compared to 1,129 in 2022.
Crimes in the transit system increased from 211 to 223, or 5% between October 2022 and October 2023, and in housing developments from 470 to 521, or 10.9%, over the same period.
