Soft-on-crime Carl Heastie’s NYC district dealing with massive surge in rape, robbery

Soft-on-crime state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie fiddles while his backyard in the Bronx burns, crime statistics show.

Major crime has surged 27% in the precinct that covers the woke Democrat’s East Bronx district, with spikes in five of the seven major crime categories.

Through Sunday, 595 major crimes were logged in the 49th Precinct, which covers the Laconia neighborhood where Heastie’s office is located, compared to 467 for the same period in 2023, the data show.

Rape has skyrocketed 175% (11 from 4), felony assault soared 18% (105 from 89), robbery climbed 6% (68 from 64); grand larceny ballooned 70% (251 from 148) and auto larceny rose 9% (113 from 104), the stats show.

“He doesn’t care about his constituents. He doesn’t care about the community. If it wasn’t for bail reform, we wouldn’t have these problems,” railed Bronx conservative activist Grace Marrero.

Heastie was the leading advocate of the state’s controversial 2019 criminal justice reforms, which eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges — creating a revolving door for released felony suspects.

The pol sparked more outrage last week when he nixed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to toughen sentences for retail thieves, declaring, “I just don’t believe raising penalties is ever a deterrent on crime.”

Many business owners are fed up with Heastie over his refusal to crack down on violent shoplifters, including those in his own neighborhood, where retail theft is up a disturbing 19% (185 from 155).

“If there were harsher penalties for people shoplifting, we wouldn’t have shoplifting,” fumed Moustapha Maflahi, co-owner of Bling Beauty Supply on White Plains Road about  1 1/2 miles from Heastie’s office. “On Fridays and Saturdays when it’s really busy in here I have to constantly watch the camera and still merchandise that costs from $20 to $100 goes away.

“And then eventually businesses shut down. That’s how Rite Aid shut down,” he noted.

The merchant also doesn’t get Heastie’s stubbornness on bail reform.

“Why would you eliminate consequences?…. I know of someone that steals cars, my neighbor told me, three times he stole her brother’s car, and he just keeps getting out. Why would you want those people on our streets?”

Bronx activist Bernard Smith, who lost his 19-year-old son and 32-year-old nephew to gun violence in 2000 and founded Stop the Violence, said he learned a hard lesson when he was caught shoplifting 40 years ago.

Smith, now 73, was sentenced to 90 days in 1985. “I said, never again. Back then, you do the crime, you do the time.”

Smith said he doesn’t have “the slightest clue” as to Heastie’s thinking when it comes to crime.

“You don’t see seniors in the street no more. Sitting on a park bench or in the park,” he said of rising fear in the city.

Heastie has failed to get the message — even after a murder occurred outside his office last year.

A 20-year-old man was blasted in the head during a drive-by shooting, when multiple gunmen fired at least 10 shots from a white BMW sedan on Gun Hill Road and Fenton Avenue, outside Heastie’s one-story district office, on April 17 at around 3 p.m., sources said.

The Post learned this week that the victim, Zaire Carey, succumbed to his injuries two days later, and two suspects were arrested on April 28.

“And he [Heastie] was nowhere to be found,” Marrero charged.

Both Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) have resisted Hochul’s proposal to give judges more discretion over bail by rolling back a requirement they impose the “least restrictive” standards to ensure people return to court.

Heastie has also backed the state’s “Raise the Age” law, which upped the age for criminal liability for suspects to 18.

“As most New York City precincts have seemed to turn the corner, it appears that the criminals in Heastie’s district are benefiting well from his policies,” snarked Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Crime is up and quality of life is plunging.”

Added activist Smith: “We gotta do more than just standing on a corner for a photo op. You start walking these streets. Everybody knows where the crime is.”

Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya