Open-border advocates love to tell you that "diversity is our strength." Unfortunately, illegal immigrants flooding into the United States are diversifying the criminal threats Americans face on city streets, exposing them to a tactic widely used across Latin America but rarely seen here -- until now.
Latin Americans -- and US followers of Phoenix, Arizona-based Active Self Protection's popular YouTube channel -- are quite familiar with attacks carried out by two criminals riding a single moped or dirt bike -- a modus operandi that facilitates both surprise and a quick getaway. Sometimes the criminals don't even dismount. In other instances, one or both may get off the ride. Regardless, they frequently wield deadly weapons to compel their prey to part with valuables.
That was the recent experience of two friends strolling in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood after 11pm on a Thursday night. They say a man in a ski mask jumped off the back of a moped and pointed a gun at one of them, taking the 29-year-old man's watch and the 32-year-old woman's purse. The gunman then hopped back on the moped and the getaway driver sped the two criminals off into the night.
“It was very quick, but it was obviously super rattling. I’ve lived in the area for over seven years now, and I’ve never felt unsafe,” the woman told the New York Post, asking that her name be kept out of print for fear of criminal retribution.
The female victim is certain the criminals were Venezuelan -- based on her familiarity with their accents, thanks to her having grown up in that country. What she said next spoke volumes:
“It’s pretty insane for this to be happening here. My family left Venezuela because crime like that is very common there, and they just didn’t want us growing up in that kind of like, like lack of safety.”
NYPD told Fox News that, earlier this year, they arrested two armed Venezuelans on a moped -- and believe just this one pair was connected to more than 100 robberies.
Awash in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, New York City is the top hotspot for moto-crime. “Mopeds as a means of flight from the seven major [crimes] is up over 400% since 2022,” an NYPD source told the Post, "and that’s when we believe we first started seeing the beginning of the wave of new arrivals."
Some victims have been targeted because of their foolish choice to wear outrageously pricey watches in public (compounding their foolish choices to spend their money that way in the first place). On June 26, a man in Greenwich Village had a gun pointed at his head before surrendering his $40,000 Rolex. On June 18, armed robbers stole another man's $100,000 watch outside a Manhattan hotspot. They've also been known to yank gold chains off people's necks.
Don't think you're immune from a moto-attack if don't flaunt your money. An iPhone, purse or wallet could be all the enticement the low-lifes need. In June, there was a spree of at least four moped-launched robberies in which the thieves yanked headphones off pedestrians' heads.
You're not even safe once you've left the street. On June 21, two men with guns entered Williamsburg's Birds of a Feather restaurant. "They basically held up the entire restaurant at gunpoint," NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York. He believes the two perpetrators are newly-arrived migrants.
Of course, you can't commit a moto-crime without a moto, so they're also stealing mopeds left and right -- as was the case when a food delivery worker was stabbed in the chest and robbed in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn last month. In a May incident in Queens, thieves demanded that 15- and 19-year-old victims give up their moped. When they refused, both were slashed with a knife and yanked off the vehicle.
Sometimes the criminals simply grab what they want and hit the gas, with no regard for their victims' lives -- as seen in this February attack on a woman in New York City:
It's not clear in which country this happened, but here's how one quick-thinking woman foiled an attempted purse-snatching (keep in mind this defensive tactic carries the risk of triggering punitive violence):
...and here's another failed robbery with an even more fulfilling ending: