A Local Increase in Crime?

Metro has twin stories today about a 13% rise in Williamsburg's crime rate over last year (as well as a smaller 6% rise in crime in Greenpoint and the Northside) and groups working to stop violent crime on the Southside. It would be perhaps too hopeful to say it is just a random statistical blip--in speaking with a number of community members and officers of a local precinct, crime of all stripes (car break-ins, home burglaries, muggings) seem to really have gone up this summer in North Brooklyn.

Something is going on and no one has quite put their finger on the root of it. Council Member Reyna, William Orellana of El Puente, and residents quoted in the article do seem to provide part of an answer in the lack of recreational opportunities and youth programs on the Southside, as well as the fragmentation of the community from displacement.