For the “Defund the Police” crowd, nothing the police do is right. They’re responsible for every evil you care to name. Worse, they don’t do anything to keep anyone safer.

At least, that’s what they like to believe.

Of course, the truth is more complicated than that. Some officers are good at their jobs, others are awful, same as any other group of people you care to name.

However, when they’re not sure how to do their jobs, things get…interesting.

New York City shootings over the last seven days skyrocketed by 142 percent compared with the same time period in 2019, from just 26 last year to 63 in 2020, according to NYPD data obtained by News 4.

For several weeks now, gun violence has more than doubled on New York City streets with some 24-hour periods recording dozens of New Yorkers sustaining injuries from gunfire. Take the hours following the 4th of July holiday; the NYPD said gun violence in a nine-hour window resulted in the deaths of three people and left nearly three dozen people injured.

In the lead up to the holiday weekend, three people were shot in Brownsville, including one that died from a gunshot to the head. At least seven more shootings in the city late Thursday night and into early Friday morning. In three separate drive-by shootings before midnight, a teen in Crown Heights was shot in the buttocks; a man in Far Rockaway was shot in the torso; and a man was shot in the torso in Mott Haven, according to the NYPD.

The surge in gun violence impacting those of all ages, as an 11-year-old boy was on his porch when a bullet tore through his leg in an unrelated shooting on Tuesday – becoming one of nine shot throughout the five boroughs in a 24-hour span ending Wednesday.

The week prior, June 21-27, shootings recorded by police increased by 127 percent from 2019 to 2020. And the week before that, June 14-20, there were 55 shootings in 2020 compared to just 12 the same week in 2019, NYPD data shows; that’s a 358 percent increase. A total of 74 people were wounded in the 55 shootings with at least 19 of them injured in a single day.

Gun violence has taken the lives of New Yorkers in a city already rocked by a pandemic virus and violent protests over police brutality.

Which, of course, hasn’t made things easier.

The NYPD would like to police and try and get a handle on this kind of thing, but right now, they’re simply not sure how people want to be policed. They’d like to do their jobs, but they kind of can’t.

That’s a big issue.

However, this also isn’t unique to New York, either. Chicago is also seeing a massive spike in violent crime following the unrest after the death of George Floyd during an arrest by Minneapolis police. Of course, the mayor is blaming guns for it, as per usual, while ignoring the fact that the Chicago PD is likely feeling hamstrung as well.

Frankly, unless something gets done quickly, we’re probably going to see a lot more of this kind of thing. Police need to do their jobs, but they also need to be clear on how they’re supposed to do their jobs. Without that, what can they do?