Not everyone is buying a report that New York City's crime rate has remained the same despite an influx of migrants.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the city's overall crime rate has remained flat since April 2022, when Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott began sending buses of migrants to New York to protest the federal government's border policy.
More than 170,000 migrants have arrived in the city since then.
The Times' X thread sharing the column included comments questioning the validity of the content.
"Oh, because violent crime is normal for NYC. Got it." hutru01, a self-described small business owner, posted.
"Dont worry New Yorkers the NYT says its all fine. dont believe your lying eyes." Jorge MAGA posted.
"They don't consider vagrancy and picking pockets crime anymore. That would be racist or…something." Rob Baggett posted.
"It is clear that The NY Times is not the same trustworthy newspaper it was 25 years ago," Paul Wein posted.
The Times story came less than two weeks after a video emerged showing a group of migrants brawling with police in Times Square.
The surveillance footage, recorded Jan. 27 outside a Manhattan homeless shelter, shows several men kicking officers on a sidewalk and trying to pry them off a man police had taken to the ground.
"A wave of migrant crime has washed over our city," Police Commissioner Edward Caban said at a Feb. 5 news conference about a Venezuelan man being sought in a series of cellphone robberies. He likened the suspect's accomplices to "ghost criminals," claiming they had come to New York "with no criminal history, no photos, no social media."
Law enforcement sources told The New York Post that migrant moped gangs terrorizing the city are part of an illicit network of hoods peddling stolen goods from the five boroughs and sending money to South America.
A 15-year-old boy from Venezuela staying at a Manhattan migrant shelter was arrested Friday, accused of shooting a Brazilian tourist in Times Square.
Kenneth Corey, a retired former chief of the department, told the Times that quantifying crimes committed by migrants is nearly impossible, because the police are not allowed to ask about a suspect's immigration status.
The Times reported that major categories of crime — including rape, murder, and shootings — have decreased, according to an analysis of the New York Police Department's month-by-month statistics since April 2022.
The outlet quoted Ana María Archila, a co-director of the Working Families Party, which is allied with labor unions and community organizations.
"You look at the history of immigration, and you see very clearly that waves of migration are accompanied by diminishing rates of crime," Archila told the Times. "It's also true that waves of migration have been received with racist, xenophobic rhetoric."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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