By Brian Trusdell From Newsmax

New York City’s homicide rate has reached a five-year high with the number of shootings increasing 42 percent from a year ago, city police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Thursday.

Shea blamed a combination of a justice system which has been suppressed in producing criminal indictments; a deteriorated social safety net, which he claims is sending released prisoners into homelessness; bail reform laws that eliminate bail for most misdemeanor and “nonviolent” felonies; and case deferments,WNBC in New York reported.

“We cannot keep people safe without keeping bad, dangerous, people off the streets,” he said. “You have a criminal justice system that’s imploding. That’s the kindest way to put it.”

The revelation and statement by Shea comes as a police commander in the city’s borough of the Bronx has announced his retirement after nearly 30 years. Deputy Inspector Richard Brea is quitting because he’s not getting any guidance on how to get guns and drugs off the streets amid the department’s bid to reform following the riots and protests over the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, the New York Post reported.

Brea will leave the department on Friday in protest over matters such as the disbanding of the NYPD’s anti-crime unit.

The paper quoted Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa as saying Brea told him, “I’m doing this and others may be following in my footsteps.”

As of this week there have been 166 homicides in New York, compared to 134 at the same point last year, a 24 percent increase year-over-year, and a 2.5 percent increase from five years ago.

Bronx Borough President Eric Adams called the increases alarming but didn’t want to see “heavy handed policing.”

“Let local communities decide who is going to police them,” he was quoted by WNBC. “Police commanders are the most powerful agency heads in our city and we don’t have enough say so on who is coming to particular communities – I think that is an important piece.”

For more on this story go to: https://www.newsmax.com/us/new-york-homicide-protest-bronx/2020/06/25/id/974239/?ns_mail_uid=6952f1f9-507d-4a20-8cc0-0a1db158d76e&ns_mail_job=DM123535_06262020&s=acs&dkt_nbr=010502hjglae