The Legal Aid Society pointed to data released from the City that contradicts the NYPD’s claim that the effects of bail reform and coronavirus-related releases have caused any spike in crime. Public defenders across the city have assailed this as proof that the NYPD has and continues to peddle misinformation in a calculated effort to undermine and resist critical criminal justice reforms, according to Gothamist.

“I think the data confirms what we’ve known all along, which is that the NYPD is very resistant to change, any change,” Marie Ndiaye, Supervising Attorney at the Decarceration Project at The Legal Aid Society, told Gothamist. “The effect of the coronavirus pandemic, the lockdown, the fact that millions of people are unemployed, thousands of people haven’t even received whether it’s the stimulus check from the federal government or money, help from our state government, and the fact that it’s summertime, a time when shootings rise in the first place.”