‘They’re not going to jail’
The Big Apple’s ongoing spike in teen violence showed no signs of slowing down Monday, with at least two more youngsters attacked in the five boroughs overnight.
A 16-year-old boy was slashed at a Bronx subway station shortly after 11:30 p.m. Sunday, hours after a 15-year-old was slugged and stabbed in Brooklyn, police sources said — even as The Post reported on the troubling trend of teen violence plaguing the city.
“The young criminals are the most violent. The gang members know they’re not going to jail,” said Queens Councilman Robert Holden, who serves on the council’s Committee on Public Safety. “They should be treated as adults. The state legislature and governor are asleep at the switch.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
In the most recent incident, the young victim was getting off a 5 train at the Pelham Parkway subway station at 11:35 p.m. when he made eye contact with another straphanger — enough to tick off the attacker, who slashed him on the arm and took off on the train, the sources said.
The wounded teen, who was “uncooperative” with cops, was treated at Jacobi Hospital Medical Center in the Bronx with non-life-threatening injuries while his assailant remains on the loose.
Shortly after midnight Sunday, another teen was attacked while taking out the garbage at the Coney Island Houses on Surf Avenue in Brooklyn, the sources said.
The 15-year-old was approached by an unknown man who punched and stabbed him in the abdomen before running away — with the victim then walking into Coney Island Hospital for treatment, according to sources.
Police sources said the teen victim has six prior arrests, as his attacker remains free.
The incidents come as The Post reported on the troubling rise in teen violence, with lax state laws handcuffing cops as more youngsters have become crime victims and suspects in recent years.
Critics cite the “Raise the Age” law that increased the age of criminal responsibility to 18, filling the city’s two juvenile facilities with older and more violent residents. Prior to the statute suspects as young as 16 were automatically charged in adult court for violent crimes.
“Children as young as 9 are being recruited by gangs. It just has to stop,” said Queens Councilwoman JoAnn Ariola, who sits on the public safety committee. “The city is under siege with a kind of Fagin’s gang that is terrorizing our city.
“The governor and the legislature made an error, public safety is at risk,” she said. “Right now these defendants go to Family Court and are released.”
Among the disturbing busts highlighted by The Post was a 14-year-old arrested nearly two dozen times in less than two years and a 12-year-old with six arrests — among the results of the state law.
The younger suspect was most recently arrested Nov. 9 after cops spotted him riding a moped with a gun — a weapon later traced to two other attempted assault cases in the Big Apple, sources said.
According to NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri, 12% of the gun busts made this year involve suspects under 18 years old.
Lipetri said the department estimates that one-fourth of the youngsters busted with a gun will be involved in a gun-related crime — whether it’s as a suspect, witness or a victim.
In one recent incident, a 15-year-old boy was shot and wounded at a 4 train station at 167th Street and River Avenue in the Bronx shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Sources said the violence unfolded after cops spotted a group of people wanted for an earlier shooting and followed them into the station — only to hear the shots before they reached them.
Cops chased the suspects onto the tracks and nabbed two of them, including alleged gunman David Ayenengoye, 20, who is now charged with attempted murder for wounding the teen.
“Since these laws don’t prevent juveniles from committing crime, the laws only serve to make them better at crime,” one law enforcement source said. “Soon they grow up to be violent adult criminals and that’s when the community really suffers.”
