Two Officers Fatally Shot, Baby Hit by Crossfire in NYC Crime Surge

Since the start of 2022, five police officers have been shot in New York City in a tragic surge of violent crime that has also taken the lives of innocent bystanders.

CNN: Mora, 27, and Officer Jason Rivera, 22, were fatally shot Friday when a suspected gunman opened fire in a Harlem apartment, authorities said. The suspect, Lashawn McNeil, tried to run but was confronted and shot by a third officer on the scene, police said. McNeil died on Monday.

Mora and Rivera are just two of five NYPD officers who have been shot in the nation’s largest city in the first month of 2022. In addition, a woman was pushed onto the subway tracks in Times Square and a baby was hit in the face by crossfire in the Bronx.

In 2021, NYC reported that 1,857 people were the victims of shootings following a cut to the NYPD’s budget. Nationwide, 62 officers were fatally wounded in uniform across the country, a 38 percent increase from 2020 and the total number of homicides rose five percent.

A Fox News poll found that rising crime was the second most important issue for voters — following inflation — and that 81 percent were concerned about the issue. Heading into the midterms, the issue is a liability for Democrats who continue to question and downplay the surge in violent crime — including in Florida where Sen. Marco Rubio is running against Democrat Rep. Val Demings, a former police chief who turned her back on law enforcement officers.

Fox News: Demings “should know better,” [Rubio] said. “It’s even worse when someone who knows better and should know better decides to align themselves with this effort to call into question the work that law enforcement is doing,” he added . . . “There are plenty of people around this country that would like to see Florida become like California, New York, or some of these other places that have lost their mind and become deranged,” Rubio argued.

Asked to explain his “deranged” comment in his Fox News interview, Rubio said: “You have places where local officials have undermined law enforcement and excused criminality, and the result is a violent crime wave that swept these places. So that’s deranged level of government as far as I’m concerned.”

Bottom Line: Democrats — from the White House down to mayor’s offices — have failed to address the stunning rise in violent crime. Voters, and police officers, have had enough.