Blades are carving up the Big Apple.
Stabbings and slashings across the city this year spiked 6% to 3,582 incidents through Aug. 11, up from 3,370 during the same period time last year, according to NYPD data requested by The Post.
So far this year, 60 people have died by the blade — an 11% surge from the 54 in 2023.
“There’s no reason for so much crime to go on,” Alton Scott, a veteran MTA conductor who needed 34 stitches to close a gruesome neck wound after being slashed in March, told The Post.
His attacker remains on the loose.
In May, 17-year-old Sarah Rivera was killed in a stabbing outside a Queens subway station during a tragic dispute with a friend, acquaintances and relatives said.
Rivera was allegedly drinking with pals in a park near the 46th Street station in Sunnyside around 9:30 p.m. when she got into the fatal argument with the 15-year-old acquaintance and was stabbed in the neck. The unnamed assailant is in custody.
“There’s no value for life,” Sarah’s dad, Erik Rivera, 50, told The Post this week. He called the surge in stabbings “disturbing” and teen-on-teen crime “a pandemic.”
“I want justice,” he said of his daughter’s killer. “The full extent of the law. I don’t see any remorse.”
MTA conductor who needed 34 stitches to close a gruesome neck wound
after being slashed in March, told The Post. TWU
The stabbing surge is due to a “dramatic” rise in juvenile and gang crimes, “unpredictable” emotionally disturbed individuals roaming the streets, and an “influx of migrants” who “engage in disorderly conduct, robberies and pop-up disputes,” Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor, told The Post.
In February, a 17-year-old migrant was stabbed during a wild brawl involving dozens of people — including other migrants — in Times Square.
“As the NYPD intensifies its crackdown on gun possession, perpetrators have resorted to carrying knives instead,” Alcazar added.
subway station during a tragic dispute with a friend. Instagram @nyc.saraa
Alcazar’s John Jay colleague David Sarni, a retired NYPD detective, noted that more people are carrying knives for protection while the bad guys know the blade can do the dirty work without drawing as much attention — or jail time — as a gun.. “You can get knives anywhere … I’ve seen people who have gotten slashed and don’t realize the slash until like a block or so away,” he said.
The 27-year NYPD vet said social media has added fuel to the fire as teens settle “nonsensical beefs” with weapons. “There’s no de-escalation. These kids aren’t learning social skills anymore,” he said.
Sarni said the woke City Council is not helping matters.
“I’ve watched City Council hearings and I’m not impressed with the act. They seem to be more into the ‘gotcha’ moment with the police department as opposed to, ‘What can we do to stem the tide of violence within our neighborhood? What can we do to deal with students?’”
In June, a 39-year-old man was stabbed in the neck inside the Milo Coffee shop in Manhattan — leading heroic customers and staff to fight off his ruthless attackers. The victim survived.
Wanda, a worker at the Amsterdam Avenue java joint, near West 181st Street, blamed the mentally ill and migrants for the surge. “They don’t have jobs, they want money. They get in trouble.”
She added: “We are seeing things we don’t see before. Taking phones from people. Taking jewelry.
“You are not even safe even in your work.”
The NYPD said arrests for stabbings and slashings are up 11% this year (2,668) compared to 2023 (2,411).
