The “wilding,” as Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the mayhem caused by a mob in Times Square Easter night, wasn’t limited to Midtown where 33 people were arrested early Monday and four people were shot.
Smaller-scale incidents, suspected to be gang-related, broke out in Upper Manhattan, including a shooting and a stabbing in Harlem, officials said.
Some 40 people were arraigned in connection with crimes in Times Square and elsewhere, including at the D train at 50th street, Lenox Ave. and 125th St., Eighth Ave. and 127th St. and Eighth and 155th St. More arrests are expected as investigations continue.
Prosecutors are refusing plea deals for those arrested. “New York cannot take one step backward in our fight to keep our streets safe,” Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said in a statement.
Several politicians worry that incidents, plus a 22 percent rise in murders this year, portend a crime spike. But some say it’s too soon to draw that conclusion. Jeffrey Fagan, a professor at Columbia Law School, said the mayhem was a “ritual” event which outgrew police ability to control it. To call it evidence of increased crime is “red-baiting because of the racial overtones of the Time Square episode,” he said. “So is Bloomberg’s use of the term ‘wilding.’”
