Knife Crimes Increasing but Politicians Don’t Care

Shootings along with homicide rates in most large cities have increased significantly since the national crime surge accompanying the George Floyd riots.  While anti-second amendment democrat politicians including the President, the Mayor of New York City, California’s Governor and Attorney General are focused on “gun crimes” by criminals as justification to increase restrictions on gun ownership by the law-abiding public, knife crimes are not receiving the same level of political attention.  The seriousness of knife attacks was highlighted in a series of early 2022 fatal stabbings of young women beginning in January 12, when a repeat felon walked into a high-end furniture store in the very expensive Los Angeles neighborhood of Hancock Park and fatally stabbed Briana Kupfer, a college student working there.  The autopsy report indicated that Kupfer suffered from 26 stab wounds, eleven of which were to the 24-year-old’s chest.  Kupfer was also stabbed in her abdomen, pelvis, arms, and legs.

On February 13, a repeat felon followed Christina Yuna Lee to her New York Chinatown apartment, forced his way inside and stabbed Lee over 40 times.  The murderer was on supervised release with three open criminal cases pending at the time.  Both of these murders received wide media coverage but zero response other than condolences from political leaders.   By August of 2022 police data reported that fatal stabbings in New York City had increased by 43% compared to 2021.

In November, CBS News reported on the random knife attack on a 9-year-old boy and a 25-year-old woman who were Christmas shopping in a Los Angeles Target store.  The attacker, a homeless man was shot and killed by a security guard.

CNN reports that on New Years Eve, a 19-year-old man acting on behalf of the Taliban Muslim terrorist group slashed three NYC police officers with a machete near Times Square.  Three days later the New York Daily News reports that five people were victims of stabbing attacks over a three-hour period.  Luis Rosas was arrested for three of the attacks near a bus terminal.  Two other men were stabbed during a fight near W. 46th Street.  No suspect has been arrested.

What New York and California have in common is streets flooded with habitual criminals turned loose by compassionate progressive sentencing reforms supported by their governors, attorneys general, state legislatures, big city mayors and district attorneys.  The choice by these politicians to focus on “gun crimes” and ignore the stabbings, beatings, robberies and burglaries is political.  All serious crimes are increasing, not just those involving guns.   As Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYDP sergeant and John Jay College Professor told reporters last August, “We’ve probably lost two decades-worth of crime reductions, and that’s a real shame.”