As crime runs amok in New York City, everything becomes a weapon — even a frying pan.
The New York Police Department said Saturday that a man reported he was robbed by five people, at least two of whom were wielding frying pans, according to the New York Daily News.
The crime took place on Manhattan’s Lower East Side around 2:10 a.m. on July 21, according to police.
The NYPD said the 34-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was arguing with a stranger when he was attacked.
The victim told police that five people approached him and that two of them began hitting him with what seemed to be frying pans.
The robbers took the man’s wallet, which had $220 in cash as well as his credit cards. About $1,200 worth of charges were made on the stolen credit cards, police said.
The NYPD said the victim suffered injuries to his head and knee and was taken to a hospital.
Police released images of the suspects on Saturday in hopes someone will recognize them.
The NYPD is searching for five suspects who reportedly attacked a man with what appeared to be cooking pans on the Lower East Side last month. https://t.co/bU2JYSegmO
— Fox5NY (@fox5ny) August 6, 2022
In July, major crimes in New York increased 30.5 percent over 2021, the NYPD said in a news release on Sunday.
Grand larceny was up 40.6 percent, robbery was up 37.2 percent and burglary was up 25.6 percent. Shootings were up 13.4 percent, and murders rose 34.3 percent, according to the release.
John Miller, former deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism in New York, blamed New York state’s bail reform laws passed in 2019 for letting crime grow beyond all control, according to the New York Post.
“And then you saw crime start to climb, and it really set us back a decade in terms of shootings and murders, which is [a] shame,” Miller said Sunday. “It’s like having a cure for a disease and then having the hospital take the vaccination away.”
State legislators “literally took every proposal that had been sitting on the shelf that they couldn’t pass because common-sense people wouldn’t let it happen, they blew the dust off them, and they passed them all at once, he said, adding that lawmakers “snuck them out in the middle of the night. And we’ve been suffering from it ever since.”
“I don’t think anybody bothered to read them. I think it was all ideology over common sense,” Miller said.
He said reforms are one thing, but massive changes made without considering their impact are another.
“And I think the criminal-justice system is a complex ecosystem where you can make changes and adjustments, and there are reforms that made sense that are in there,” Miller said. “But you can’t do all of that at once and drop it like an atom bomb on a system that that’s complicated and not expect turmoil.
Have Democratic politicians made New York City unsafe?
“District attorneys don’t like it. Judges don’t like it. Police officers don’t like it. And citizens don’t like it. So that leaves one universe — the advocates — who think it’s terrific.
“They are advocates for people who commit crimes, who get caught in the system. And where are the advocates for everybody else?”
As strange as it might seem, this wasn’t the time a frying pan had been used in a robbery in the city.
Man, 41, hit in the head with frying pan during robbery, NYPD hunting for suspects https://t.co/SX63XMYiPk pic.twitter.com/tRUYhb2Qz3
— 1010 WINS (@1010WINS) July 11, 2019
In 2019, the NYPD sought four suspects after a 41-year-old man was struck with a pan and robbed in Brooklyn.
