The number of drug arrests made in Central Park have shot up in the last year, climbing more than 500 percent, NYC Park Advocates reports.
"500 percent" makes Central Park sound like a lawless drug den, where leaves are made of heroin needles and dirt is made of finely minced cocaine and blades of grass are just...blades. The hard numbers, however, aren't quite so dramatic: In reality, "500 percent" boils down to 37 arrests this year, versus six over the same period last year, based on data Park Advocates obtained from the NYPD. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"I saw some Upper East Side kids right in the middle of the great lawn last week. You could see the smoke from a block away," he said, adding that he was certain they were UES private school because he happened to know where they went to school. "If these kids feel that safe—right in the center of the great lawn? That's pretty brazen." But for prep school kids with the right connections, that's not brazen, that's just Tuesday.
