Seniors are ‘simple pickings for the criminals,’ knowledgeable says
Assaults on Gotham’s aged are up 14% in comparison with final yr — and have skyrocketed 143% over the identical span in 2018, in accordance with NYPD information obtained by The Submit.
There have been 2,112 felony assaults on one of many metropolis’s most susceptible teams to date this yr, in comparison with 1,853 within the interval final yr, the information present. There have been solely 870 assaults on seniors in the identical span of 2018.
Almost 80% of the two,112 assaults in 2026 have led to an arrest, and the NYPD mentioned lots of them are being dedicated by repeat offenders.
“That is taking place as a result of the identical perps preserve getting arrested and launched via this revolving felony justice system that appears to prioritize the rights of criminals over law-abiding residents,” mentioned retired NYPD detective and John Jay adjunct professor Michael Alcazar.
“The mentally unwell are neglected within the wild and New Yorkers should preserve their heads on a swivel and be vigilant in avoiding this inhabitants. Seniors find yourself turning into low-hanging fruit and simple pickings for the criminals.”
In 2025, 462 suspects have been arrested for 3 or extra felony assaults in a yr. That was a 192% improve over the 158 people arrested for 3 or extra felony assaults in 2018, in accordance with the NYPD.
“The reoffending fee for felony assault is up 50% this yr,” a police supply mentioned, which means an individual commits a felony assault after which one other crime inside 30 days. “That’s an astronomical improve.”
Former NYPD crime analyst supervisor Christopher Herrmann known as the aged assaults regarding as a result of main crime within the metropolis general is down 6% to date this yr, in accordance with NYPD information.
“What we’re seeing is a focus of violence amongst a very susceptible inhabitants,” mentioned Herrmann, an affiliate professor at John Jay Faculty of Felony Justice. “The senior inhabitants has grown … however nowhere close to sufficient to elucidate a 143% improve in assaults.”
New York Metropolis’s inhabitants aged 65 and older grew by almost half 1,000,000 seniors within the final twenty years, a rise of 53%, in accordance with the NYS Comptroller’s Workplace.
A few third of this yr’s assaults on the aged have been associated to home violence, the NYPD mentioned.
However most of the crimes have been stranger assaults.
In a single case, a loon punched an 81-year-old girl he didn’t know within the face after beginning a tiff together with her on a Jackson Heights, Queens, road round 7:45 a.m. July 16, police mentioned. The brute then socked her within the head earlier than fleeing.
One other brute shoved a 72-year-old man onto the subway tracks in Midtown on Aug. 19, breaking the sufferer’s rib and dislocating his shoulder, officers mentioned.
The person was ready on the F and D prepare platform on the forty seventh–fiftieth Streets–Rockefeller Middle station round 4 a.m. when the attacker creeped up and pushed him silently from behind.
The gutsy senior climbed again onto the platform on his personal. Francisco Garcia, 40, was arrested on assault expenses and awaiting a listening to in jail on Rikers Island, metropolis data present.
A maniac shoved an 85-year-old girl to the bottom at East sixteenth Road and Union Sq. – leaving her unconscious with a mind bleed — in an unprovoked assault — as she stepped off a bus in Manhattan on June 1, authorities mentioned.
“At this fee, aged assaults in New York Metropolis don’t have any ends in cite and it’s going to take greater than the NYPD,” Alcazar mentioned. “The mayor’s different businesses must step up.”
