It's (arguably) the greatest city in the world - so good, as the saying goes, that they named it twice. But New York wasn't always like that. In fact, back in the, 1970s crime was incredibly high and unions representing the police published a leaflet called Welcome To Fear City, designed to terrify would-be tourists.
Among other things, it warned to stay off the streets after 6pm, to avoid public transportation and to never leave Manhattan - but it was actually more of a political ploy by the unions against the mayor, who was thinking about laying off around 10,000 uniformed police officers.
Nowadays, New York is actually very safe - well, as safe as one of the biggest cities in the world will ever be - but shit still happens sometimes. According to the New York Post, on Saturday night 16 people were shot in 10 incidents across the city in under seven hours. At the time of writing, one person is dead and three others are in critical condition.
The first incident took place at 9:43 p.m. in the Bronx when a man wearing a red bandanna in a black sedan squeezed off six rounds at the corner of West 166th Street and Nelson Avenue. An 18-year-old was shot in the shoulder while a 20-year-old got hit in the eye and abdomen. According to police, the latter victim checked himself into Lincoln Hospital.
Advert
Later that evening, an 18-year-old man was shot in the chest at Brooklyn's Gravesend Houses - police say he is expected to survive.
As the night continued, further shootings took place in different boroughs, including a 15-year-old who was shot in the ankle in Brooklyn, a 39-year-old who was shot in the back four times in Astoria, Queens - and survived - and a 21-year-old, Rashawn Pope, who was shot in the chest at the corner of West 125th Street and 12th Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan. Pope is the only confirmed death of the evening.
In addition to all the shootings, the final incident of violence took place at 11am on Sunday morning, when a drunk man stabbed his ex-girlfriend's 24-year-old son in the neck. The attacker then fell out of a second-story window while trying to flee.
Advert
It was an uncharacteristically bloody night for New York - according to NYPD data, the previous week had seen 24 shootings for the whole week, as opposed to 16 in less than seven hours.
Featured Image Credit: PA