Is the gang problem in NY greater than Chicago?
Democrats either don't know, or cast a blind eye at how crime works in America and around the world.
My opinion is the depth of the crime problem in NY city is buried by the large overall population. Crimes per thousand people don't look so bad when you have a population of a eight million people in the city. St Louis may have worse crime statistics than NY City, but I know the crime in NY is just as bad as St Louis.
New York's gang problem is big, but major violence was confined to certain areas, and it actually took a lot of trying to get shot in NY. Guys would get beat up, slashed, etc...., but shootings were rare for a city this size. Most of that was because of - 1) proactive policing, even with CCRB, etc.... guys were getting stopped and at least talked to, so they weren't carrying as often. Now all of that's stopped. 2) high end cameras are almost everywhere because of building codes, and just NY being NY. I can't count how many times I've seen things that might of gone violent stopped because of someone being reminded there were cameras.
Also there has always been more street crime in NYC that gets reported because of Compstat policing, and the lying that goes on with it (
www.reuters.com/article/us-crime-newyork-statistics/nypd-report-confirms-manipulation-of-crime-stats-idUSBRE82818620120309). But it's just been so violent the last year and 1/2 compared to the last 20, that there's no way to hide it.
Also the crime rate has jumped up huge in the subways. Once that happens, everyone takes notice, it's no longer hidden. Black, White, rich, poor, everyone uses them.