Metro

NYPD’s gang crackdown slashes youth slays

Homicides among city youth were cut in half by an NYPD gang crackdown that included the use of social media, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced Monday.

Over the last year, Operation Crew Cut has rounded up 400 gang members and indicted them for crimes including, murder, robbery and weapons possession, he said.

As exclusively reported by The Post, Operation Crew Cut started in late 2012, when cops began using social media to monitor disputes between rival gangs, or “crews.”

“These young people talk about things they have done. They brag to a certain extent,” Kelly said.

Through November of this year, 43 homicide victims were between the ages of 13 and 21, compared with 87 in the age group last year.

“Lives are being saved, and a majority . . . of those lives are young, minority men,” Kelly said.

“It should be alarming when the cycle of violence that afflicts some communities begins as early as age 11.”

Kelly cited an incident in which an 11-year-old boy and his 17-year-old brother were attacked this past September by thugs from the Brownsville Fly Gangsters who stole their laptop outside a library.

“The brothers were beaten with fists and sticks until a bystander called police,” Kelly said.

He also cited the case of a 13-year-old girl was stabbed with an ice pick at the Marcus Garvey Houses in Brooklyn for refusing to help three female members of the Addicted to Cash Crew find a rival in another housing development.

Kelly said that in another incident, police found a .22-caliber revolver in the pocketbook of a 14-year-old girl gang member.

“Detectives have found that girl-on-girl crime by crew members is vicious and growing more dangerous,” Kelly said.

According to cops, one-third of the shootings in the city in 2011 were committed by groups of young people in turf disputes or rivalries with other crews.

Overall, shootings and homicides are down 21 percent from 2012’s record lows, and 2,657 guns have been taken off the street.

Kelly credited Operation Crew Cut.

“These are achievements all New Yorkers should be proud of, and we are certainly,” he said.