The NYPD is “aggressively investigating” the spike in street assaults downtown after The Post reported the increase, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday.
Hate crimes and late-night gatherings outside clubs are to blame for much of the 43 percent crime surge in swanky lower Manhattan neighborhoods, including Greenwich Village, the East Village, TriBeCa and Gramercy Park.
“The rise in those assaults, we believe, emanated from clubs closing as people get out of clubs late at night,” Kelly said at City Hall after testifying on the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.
“There also has been a bit of a hate-crimes element in some of those crimes, so our Hate Crimes Task Force is doing an investigation, Kelly said, adding, “We are addressing the issue.”
The Post reported yesterday that crime in lower Manhattan has jumped 43 percent so far this year, compared to the same time period in 2008.
Kelly assured New Yorkers that, overall, crime is down 12 percent in the city this year and is also down in the 6th Precinct, where many of the reported downtown crimes have taken place.
Still, he said, “One crime is one too many. We accept that. If you’re the victim of an assault, you don’t care what the numbers are. The reality is that crime is down in the West Village, but we are aggressively investigating those crimes.”
Lower Manhattan has long been a nightlife hub, so it’s unclear why crime has kicked up recently.
“Sometimes there’s raucous behavior just as these people leave these clubs, and other times it may be people who are waiting for individuals to leave the clubs. So, we’re trying to sort that out,” Kelly said.
The NYPD is also looking into whether the assault last week of an off-duty cop was a hate crime, given the anti-gay slurs shouted at him by 31-year-old Andrew Klein, who was arrested after the incident, Kelly said.
The eight-year NYPD veteran cop needed 31 stitches after the altercation on West 14th Street near Sixth Avenue early Friday.
“What are you doing with that fag?” Klein allegedly said to the cop and a friend as Klein stumbled past the duo. “What’s in your wallet, faggot,” Klein asked, before starting to punch the officer.
Klein’s lawyer, Daniel Kron, disputed the allegation, saying Klein, the son of a “prominent” Pennsylvania physician, was merely involved in a fight and did not know his combatant was a cop.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss
sgoldenberg@nypost.com