The pain and confusion of trying to reopen an economy shut down for over a year have become particularly evident in the Big Apple.
As we report in this issue’s article, “U.S. GETTING READY TO REOPEN,” last Friday, New York City’s subway system had over two million riders, the largest amount since the lockdowns were imposed. It was also reported last week that an increased number of violent gun incidents and attacks on commuters took place.
Over the past month, 170 people were shot, the highest number for that period in over 20 years. And, as of the second weekend this month, over 500 victims of gun violence were recorded, the highest in over a decade.
This has been forecast for over a year in the Trends Journal when governments locked down businesses and destroyed the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the globe.
As Gerald Celente has long noted, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” And lose it they are.
As though it was a revelation, now, some 16 months after we had forecast rising crime due to the lockdowns, according to The New York Times report last Friday, “experts” interviewed cited the financial and emotional strain on those neighborhoods, which had already been suffering from gun crimes.
Even in Times Square, the popular tourist attraction that has rarely seen gun violence, gunfire broke out, injuring innocent bystanders including a four-year-old child.
As we have forecast, violence is also escalating in other large cities, which should come as no surprise given the pressures building up from the extended lockdowns.
Back on 29 October, The New York Times published an article on rising gun violence in Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and other large cities. The headline and sub-headline read:
Police Pin a Rise in Murders on an Unusual Suspect: COVID
Awash in new firearms, cities are drawing connections between the stresses of the coronavirus and a surge in homicides.
The violence continues to build. Chicago witnessed 865 gun incidents during the first four months of this year, over 200 more than the year previous. In New York City, murders are up over 20 percent from the year before.
Michael LiPetri, head of the NYC Police Department’s crime control strategies, attributed three-fourths of gun violence to tensions among street gangs. The head of the mayor’s office of criminal justice said that another major factor leading to more violence was rising tensions among people with no previous criminal records.
The outer boroughs of Brooklyn and the Bronx account for almost 70 percent of the shootings.
Nearly 40 million guns were purchased legally in 2020. Thus, as gun violence continues, pushes for gun control will not be successful in most states, as more people want to be armed to protect themselves from rising crime.
Commuter Chaos
The Times reported that last Friday, three NYC subway riders were slashed with knives and had to be ambulanced to hospitals. A fourth rider was punched and robbed. One of the victims, a 48-year-old man, suffered a knife wound to his eye and had to undergo emergency surgery.
On 4 May, a young woman was punched in the head and had her laptop stolen while entering a subway station.
As The New York Post described the growing transit crime wave on Sunday: “Three violent attacks mark another morning of NYC subway mayhem.”
TREND FORECAST: The great exodus from New York City to suburbs and ex-burbs will continue as crime rates rise. Again, there will be an economic bounce-back in the coming months, but, as we have forecast, it will be only temporary. With fewer people commuting and more working from home, local businesses that served them will go bust. Thus, the further the economy falls, the higher crime rates will rise.
