On Tuesday, NYPD chief James O’Neill unveiled a new initiative to combat a recent spike in stabbings and slashings in New York City. It’s called Operation Cutting Edge, and it aims to use CompStat data to differentiate pointy-instrument attacks from other felonious assaults and analyze where and why they are happening. The intent is to curb the notable increase in the number of knife attacks this year, even as other crimes have continued to decr—
Sorry, did they say it’s called Operation Cutting Edge? Because it’s about slashings? Seriously?
Wait, is this perhaps a lighthearted reference to The Cutting Edge, the 1992 action-sporty-romance film starring D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly? It is not. That punny title was about ice skating. This one is about grievous bodily harm.
This is not that first highly regrettable case of police-force punning in public, although it is the highest-profile thus far. From last year:
And from the police force’s official beekeeper (yes, there is one):
