A spate of nine bloody shootings broke out across the city Saturday, the same day Al Sharpton and thousands gathered at an anti-cop rally on Staten Island — in which protesters bashed “Broken Windows” and stop-and-frisk policing.
The gunfire erupted at a cafe in Manhattan, and in separate incidents in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx — most between 12:50 and 3:50 a.m. — continuing a disturbing uptick in gunplay.
Citywide, shootings are up to 824 this year, compared to 736 last year — a nearly 12 percent increase, the latest NYPD data reveal. At the same time, the use of stop-and-frisk has plunged 92 percent, according to the most recent data available.
But protesters at the anti-cop rally bashed the NYPD’s crime-prevention strategies. “Broken Windows Kills,” proclaimed one protester’s sign.
Hardworking cops managed to take a gun and multiple criminals off the streets — the same day protesters blasted New York’s Finest as brutal and corrupt.
The shootings come on the heels of last weekend’s carnage — in which two people were killed and at least 20 others wounded.
Saturday’s attacks include two men shot in the lobby of an apartment complex at Clarkson and Nostrand avenues in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, at 12:50 a.m.
At 1:15 a.m., a gunman blasted a victim in the leg on Simpson Street near Barretto Street in Hunts Point, The Bronx. Cops made two arrests, apprehending Jarvis Profit and Terrance Hobbs, and in the process taking a .32 caliber Colt semiautomatic handgun off the streets.
A man was also shot in the leg on Merrick Boulevard and 109th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, at 2:20 a.m. At 2:39 a.m., yet another victim was sprayed with bullets on Ninth Street near 40th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, suffering leg injuries.
In Manhattan, a man was shot in the gut at Hudson River Cafe at 133rd Street and 12th Avenue at 3:50 a.m. He was in critical condition.
Gunfire broke out later Saturday in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on Lexington Avenue at 2:15 p.m., leaving a victim with a leg wound.
Shootings number 8 and 9 came just before midnight Saturday.
Meanwhile, at a City Hall meeting on July 31, Sharpton soapboxed about wanting a gentler NYPD.
“The fact of the matter is, given the data that we are seeing in terms of these ‘Broken Window’ kind of operations, it’s disproportionate in the black and Latino community,” he said.
He added, “I want it refined in a way that we do not have a disproportionate impact on people like [selling] loosies [single cigarettes], rather than things that are really criminal,” he said, referring to Eric Garner, who died after a cop put him in a chokehold.
On Saturday, Sharpton spoke at Mount Sinai Church before the protest about the Garner case — again bashing the NYPD.
“If you can do it to him, you can do it to any citizen. We are not going to be silent while that happens,” Sharpton said.
