Rape increases 11% in NYC

The Big Apple has seen an alarming 11% increase in rapes this year, with some parts of the city more than doubling the number.

NYPD statistics show that 880 rapes were reported in the city from January 1 through July 14, compared to 796 during the same period last year.

“This should be a wake-up call,” said Jane Manning, executive director of Women’s Equal Justice. “The NYPD needs to assign more investigators to its understaffed Special Victims Unit so that every case is properly investigated and dangerous offenders are caught.”

Areas with the strongest increases are:

• Manhattan’s 10th District, which includes Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen South and Hudson Yards, saw a 300% increase, with eight so far this year, compared to two in 2023.

• The number of rapes in the Midtown South Precinct in Times Square has more than doubled, from nine to 19. That’s an increase of 111 percent.
• In the 101st Precinct on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, the number of rapes increased by 100% from 7 to 14.
• In the 105th Precinct in eastern Queens, the number of rapes has increased 70 percent this year, from 10 last year to 17.

According to the NYPD, most rapists know their victims, but the city has recently been rocked by a handful of “stranger rapes.”

In the Bronx on May 21, a deranged assailant was captured on video throwing a belt around a woman’s neck, dragging her between two cars and raping her at East 152nd Street and 3rd Avenue.

Christian Inga, a Venezuelan migrant living in Corona, was arrested for raping a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint in a Queens park on June 13 after police released a police sketch and surveillance photo of him.

The teen’s father, whose identity The Post is not releasing to protect the victim, said the family has been in despair since the violent attack.

“We’ve been through hell,” the devastated father told The Post. “It’s turned my world upside down and the healing process has yet to begin.” He previously told The Post that he blamed President Biden’s disastrous open-border policies for allowing career criminals to easily enter the U.S.

In Central Park, a 21-year-old woman was sunbathing in a bikini in a secluded spot on June 24 when a man exposed himself and jumped on her, police said.

The alleged attacker, Jermaine Longmire, 43, was captured after an intensive manhunt.

Longmire, who was accused of attempted rape and sexual abuse, had been arrested in the city at least eight times before.

Statistics show that there have been two rapes in the park so far this year, compared to zero in 2023.

Experts say several factors could be behind the increase, including the NYPD’s shrinking manpower, growing immigrant population and failed bail reform policies.

“It’s no secret that the NYPD has gotten significantly smaller in terms of police force. Because it’s smaller, when it decides to prioritize something — say, subway violations — it makes the top a little bit more vulnerable, because there are now more officers below,” said Rafael Mangual, a criminal justice policy expert and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Mangual said the risk of crimes like rape has also increased due to controversial policies, including evidentiary reforms that require prosecutors to turn over evidence to defense attorneys earlier in the legal process; New York’s Raise the Age law, which raised the minimum age of criminal liability from 16 to 18 in 2018; and soft-on-crime prosecutors, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“The number of cases being dismissed has gone up (and) the number of cases not being prosecuted has gone up because of the progressive prosecution methods of Bragg, (Brooklyn District Attorney) Eric Gonzalez and (Bronx District Attorney) Darcel Clark,” he said.

According to Mangual, migrant shelters could also be partly responsible for the increase in rapes in certain areas, but it is impossible to say without information about the addresses of the attacks.

The NYPD did not immediately want to release that information to The Post.

“You’re talking about potentially vulnerable populations in environments that are not as easily controlled,” Mangual said. “These are very densely populated buildings. … It’s behind closed doors. There’s probably a lot of fear.”

Rapes are also more common in areas where open-air prostitution flourishes.

In the 115th Precinct in Queens, which includes East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, the number of victims has increased by 50%, from 14 currently in 2023 to 21 this year.

And Queens’ 110th precinct, home to the infamous “Market of Sweethearts” along Roosevelt Avenue, saw a 38% increase in rapes, with 22 so far this year compared to 16 during the same period last year.

The NYPD says all rapes are taken seriously.

“The NYPD thoroughly investigates every complaint of rape and will continue to work to bring justice to the survivors of these horrific crimes,” a department spokesperson said.