But nobody seems to be complaining.

"I haven't noticed any rise," noted Ivo Perez, 66, who holds a government position and works in the Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan. "The only things on the street are peddlers selling pictures of the World Trade Center."

"Definitely," agreed Sandra Pizarro, 24, a Berkeley College student from Manhattan, when asked if she has noticed a rise in peddling. "American flags and Fallen Heroes tee shirts‹that's all they sell now."

But in reference to more serious crimes like the sale of narcotics, Pizarro seemed almost taken aback. "I would think the opposite," she said. "At least in Midtown, you can't take five steps without running into a National Guard."

Reports from the New York Police Department indicate that while the seven index crimes, which include homicide, rape and various degrees of larceny, were declining during the two months following the World Trade Center attacks as steadily as they have for almost a decade, street crimes like drug-dealing and prostitution, as well as "quality of life" offenses like peddling and panhandling have, in fact, drastically risen since September 11. Only recently, over the past three weeks, have shootings and slayings increased‹slightly.

A detective from the Manhattan South Narcotics District confirmed that the sale of heroin, crack and marijuana rose sharply during the month of October, relative to the solid decline in August and September. Similarly, a detective from the Manhattan North Initiative's narcotics division covering Midtown between 14th and 57th Street also noted that the sale of crack and heroin escalated throughout October.

Both attributed the sudden upsurge to a lack of available officers on the street after the World Trade Center attacks. "The perpetrators noticed we were gone for awhile and must have figured we'd be gone longer," the Manhattan North detective said. Officers agreed to speak with the Earth Times on condition of anonymity.

A sergeant from the Investigations Unit of the New York City Traffic Control Division, whose team was assigned to Ground Zero‹moments after the first plane hit. Like many others, his team was stationed at the site of the tragedy for over a month, he said, and the pressing need for personnel drew attention away from street crime. "I began to notice all my vice guys and narcotics detectives down at the site those first few weeks," he said. "We were getting between 60 and 65 a day."

Most of the narcotics detectives told the sergeant they noticed a significant rise in drug-related crimes. "When they go back to their posts, there are a lot more [perpetrators] around," he said. "They're not stupid‹they know we can't come down as hard as we were before and they're taking more chances."

He added, "I'm sure prostitution and gambling will go up too. There just aren't enough officers to fully cover both places at once."

While officers have certainly observed an increase in crime, a look at the arrest data would seem to contradict the current trend. Narcotics arrests were significantly higher at this time last year: there were 1,939 narcotics related arrests made during the third week of November in 2000 as opposed to the 1,154 made over the same period this year. Furthermore, there were only 56,209 overall narcotics arrests this year to date, as compared with last year's 73,437.

This does not mean, however, that crime itself has been on the decline. Law enforcement officers have simply been making fewer arrests for those same crimes; the crisis has fewer cops available to cover narcotics posts since September 11.

Ironically, many people believe to have observed an increase in law enforcement since the attacks. Of the 30 New Yorkers informally interviewed, a staggering 27 feel police presence is as high as ever, if not higher. "It seemed like there were more cops around after [the attack]," observed Stephanie Leonhardt, 26. "On Halloween there were more officers on the street than people."

Leonhardt said that while she has definitely noticed drug dealers, they seemed to frequent the same places they had been before the attack. "Oh, I get offers in Washington Square Park all the time," she admitted. "But it was always like that. A guy I knew used to come here to get heroin, and that was months before the attack. Even with cops around, people have always known this was the place for that stuff."

Kobena Bentil, a quality engineer for New York City subways, said that even the prostitutes who often loitered terminals at night were absent of late. "I have access to all the entrances and hideouts and I haven't noticed any such rise," Bentil said. "If anything, there has been increased security and training."

Manhattan Transport Authority (MTA) contractor Curtis Ewing felt a similar police presence‹just not a conspicuous one. "There are less uniformed cops around, but believe me, the others are still patrolling," he remarked. "There are less on subway cars since the attack, which is why there's so much more panhandling."

Ewing even noted a "crackdown" in prostitution in Queens Plaza, where it had become rampant for some time. A 22-year old Greenpeace recruiter claimed a similar crackdown might be in effect regarding narcotics. "It just seems like drugs are actually harder to get these days," he commented, and quickly added, "That is, if one were looking to buy drugs..."

Perhaps people have simply become oblivious of late to anything other than body counts, war games and an oncoming recession. Or maybe most just want the warm and fuzzy friendliness of unity and support for a broken city untainted by everyday vice.

"I can easily see two kinds of arguments, the first being that police are so busy dealing with hoaxes and scares that the streets are less patrolled and the risk of an offender is diminished, which would lead to an increase in crime," explained Alfred Blumstein, author of The Crime Drop in America. "This suggests a rationality of 'oh, there's less patrol‹let's go out and commit more crime,' which does not characterize most criminal behavior.

"In the other direction." he continued, "there has been a sense of coming together, patriotism and feeling good about each other, which would bring about a decrease. And maybe people are feeling nice, but drug dealers desperately needing money might be oblivious to anything other than the compulsion to sell drugs." Furthermore, he said, anxieties about terrorism may, in fact, contribute to a potential rise in drug use.

Yet Blumstein's latter argument of people "feeling nice" seems to reflect the assumptions of many New Yorkers‹even as this premise essentially conflicts with the facts provided by law enforcement officials. Many, it seems, would like to believe even criminals have ceased to think bad thoughts other than those perpetuated by a common enemy‹that singular, faceless source of iniquity called Terrorism.

"There seem to be fewer incidents now, less community complaints of violence compared to what I dealt with before," said Mamadou Cisse, Director of Operations at the St. Augustine homeless shelter in Midtown Manhattan. "A lot of our clients, the homeless, they get into drugs, and they used to fight each other pretty badly. I don't call it a good thing, but if we can find a positive effect of the tragedy, it's that we kind of care about each other now...they're not slashing each other. They're kind of nicer. Some people go to jail for smoking crack, but that was happening before September 11.

"They watch the news too, like everyone else," he continued. "They have the same fears‹'will I get anthrax? Will there be another attack?' And they want to help each other through this."

Some contradictions call for explanation, of which there is some. As of last week, police have increased patrolling of certain areas to curb the rise in street crime, particularly the sale of narcotics.

"In September my teams were assigned to various details related to the World Trade Center attacks, but as we noticed a rise in drug dealing, they've been making a lot more arrests lately," remarked Manhattan North's detective. He alleged that a barrage of summonses have also been issued over the past two weeks for unlicensed peddlers, who are "out in force, and finally being penalized."