Stabbing Surge Has New Yorkers on Edge

New York City has seen a 20 percent increase in stabbings this year compared with last, and police say they don’t understand why it’s happening or what to do about it.

From Bloomberg News:

While most of the attacks are part of domestic disputes in homes, random assaults without apparent motives are on the rise. As of March 13, police recorded 809 incidents, up from 673 last year. So far there have been 20 attacks in the subways — nine more than last year — including a fatal encounter Wednesday in an East Harlem station.

Kitchen knives, screw drivers, box cutters and machetes are among the weapons used. The stabbings have overshadowed a promising crime trend showing a 30 percent decline in homicides so far this year from last and a 19 percent drop in shootings. Tabloid headlines reporting a stabbing almost every day in the most populous U.S. city have heightened the police department’s concern about their impact on the public.

“The numbers are relatively very small, but stabbings are occurring all over the city,” Robert Boyce, the department’s chief of detectives, said in a telephone interview. “The random nature of some of these crimes affect everyone because it’s disturbing when it happens to just regular folks.”

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