Residents of the Big Apple may want to check their hopes of reduced crime after electing seemingly pro-enforcement Mayor Eric Adams. Recent crime statistics and the use of taxpayer money to snitch on idling trucks indicate City Hall has its priorities upside down.
“Police reported 30 homicides in the city during November, up from 25 during the same month in 2021,” according to the New York Post. “A review of the seven major crime categories shows increases in three other areas, too: Felony assaults were up 1,957 to 2,016, or 3 percent; robberies rose from 1,439 to 1,491, an increase of 3.6 percent, and car thefts jumped from 1034 to 1,131, or 9.4 percent.”
It’s a good thing Mayor Adams launched his signature crime prevention initiative in August — Heavy Duty Enforcement. Under the program personally overseen by the mayor, hard-working truck drivers were towed and fined for overnight parking.
“If you park commercial vehicles illegally, you will get ticketed, towed, or given the boot. For far too long, large commercial vehicles have been parking illegally in this neighborhood, disrupting daily life, and contributing to noise, traffic and pollution,” Mayor Adams reportedly said at the time. “We cannot let our neighborhood streets turn into illegal parking lots. I want every New Yorker to know your city is looking out for you and your quality of life.”
The ability to park more luxury vehicles must be a boon for thieves looking to jack cars. After all, you can probably fit three or four Porches or Teslas where those 18-wheelers parked after delivering 72 percent of the city’s goods and materials.
Mayor Adams appears to suffer from crime tunnel vision when it comes to large trucks. Rather than support reduced violent and property crime across the Boroughs, residents are now being enlisted as paid informers to target truckers. More specifically, confidential informants, snitches, rats, and stool pigeons are receiving cash to turn in trucks that idle for more than three minutes. Yes, only three minutes.
Funded by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the program is called the Citizens Air Complaint Program. It was conceived in 2019 and is now making a splash. The program allows ordinary citizens to shoot a three-minute video from their phones. Once recorded, residents log into the city’s Idling Complaint System to file a report.
Tattling on truckers has emerged as a lucrative business. Truckers are fined $350 for first offenses, and the complaint filer gets a 25-percent slice of the pie — $87.50.
In a recent news report, one New Yorker boasted he had filed 2,000 complaints. If the city follows through on its scheme, New York taxpayers unwittingly handed that informant $175,000. Reports also confirm truck idle chasers have received more than $125,000. In 2021, the city admitted to paying out $724,000 for 12,267 complaints. Those figures are expected to balloon over $1 million in 2022.
“Additionally, NYPD officers in November 2022 made 4,013 arrests for complaints of major felony crimes, a 19.0 percent increase over the 3,371 arrests for major felonies in the same month last year. Arrests for major felonies are up more than 25 percent (43,764 v. 34,953) so far in calendar 2022, compared with the first 11 months of 2021,” according to the NYPD.
Sources: cnbc.com, ccjdigital.com, nyc.gov, nypost.com
Simple! The more anti truck they get, the less freight they get! Manhattan especially, but all NYC/Long Island is 100% dependent on trucks to bring in their goods, and carry what little they produce out! Sack up and tell your companies not to haul freight in! Refuse to!