New York City Is Safer Than Ever—Even With Less 'Stop and Frisk'

"The recent ruling against stop-and-frisk has emboldened the city’s pistol-packing perps," the New York Post declared in September, after United States District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the NYPD's stop and frisk program is unconstitutional. The paper said that shootings were up year over year, and quoted an anonymous (likely NYPD) source as saying, “Shootings are going through the roof now because perps are not afraid to carry a gun.”

It would seem that the crooks' celebration—if it existed in the first place—was short lived. With only two days left in 2013, New York City's murder rate is the lowest it's been since 1963. The New York Times reports that murders have declined 20 percent compared to 2012 (which was itself a record-setting safe year for New York). There have been 332 murders between Jan. 1-Dec. 29 of this year, compared to 419 during the previous period.