​That jump in the citywide crime rate has continued through the sixth week of the year, up over 5 percent so far, with thefts and robbery accounting for the increase. Robberies, burglaries and grand larceny are all up 10 percent citywide.

Crime is up through Feb. 12 by double digits in three of the eight borough commands: Manhattan above 59th Street, northern Brooklyn and southern Queens, and in 31 of the city's 76 precincts.

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Sam Levin

Mike Bloomberg at press conference this morning.

​Reporters repeatedly grilled Mayor Mike Bloomberg this morning about recent reports of the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslim student groups at campuses throughout the Northeast.

Bloomberg shot back at them that the NYPD policies are there to protect freedoms such as the free press. Take that, reporters!

"You are not going to survive. You will not be able to be a journalist and write what you want to say if the people who want to take away your freedoms are allowed to succeed," Bloomberg said after one reporter pressed him on the matter.

This latest controversy escalated with reports from the Associated Press that the police department has regularly monitored websites run by Muslim student groups at 16 colleges, including Columbia and New York University.

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​Cops say that two thugs busted into a Bronx family's apartment on February 7, tied up one victim with electrical cords, and threatened to shoot another victim and her child while shaking down the apartment.

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Manhattan DA's office

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance at a school visit this week.

​We often write about the latest efforts of the Manhattan District Attorney to sentence criminals and stop crime in the city. His news releases alert us to crime activity throughout the borough, but today, we thought we'd update you on DA Cy Vance's initiatives to address a different kind of crime scene -- the internet.

This week, Vance has been tackling the issue of cyberbullying in a series of school visits aimed at raising awareness of the bullying that is increasingly taking place online and on cell phones.

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​A thieving trio busted into Time Pieces, an antique watch and clock store, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, robbing the clerk at knifepoint before macing the victim and running off with the costly chronometers, cops say.

The suspected perps fled the shop, located at 115 Greenwich Avenue, on foot.

Nobody was hurt.

Cops describe one of the suspects as between 21 and 25-years-old, with a medium build. He was wearing a white baseball cap, dark jacket, blue jeans, and dark sneakers.

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​It sure looks like a good way to be a criminal in this town is to pretend to be a cop.

Cops say these men pulled up to a Rosedale Pay-O-Matic check cashing store at 247-12 South Conduit Avenue around 8:10 a.m. on Tuesday, identified themselves as detectives, and made off with cash. Then, they hit the road in a late 1990s Ford Expedition with a "broken rear passenger window that was covered by black plastic and secured with silver-colored duct tape." (Classy.) The truck might have had Virginia license plates.

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​America, being the land of opportunity and all that, certainly generates more than its share of brilliant scammers, but Eric Stein may be a candidate for the con-man hall of fame, pets division--not so much for the amount of money he stole, but for the sheer perversion of the idea itself.

Stein pleaded guilty this week to cheating investors in a company he created that claimed to find lost animals to the tune of $500,000. He was already on parole after a prison stint for an unrelated $30 million investment scheme in Nevada when he was caught.

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​A jury just found Mustapha Ouanes guilty of raping a woman and trying to assault another in his suite at the Plaza Hotel on Jan. 26, 2010, according to the Manhattan District Attorney.

D.A. Cyrus Vance announced the conviction of Oanes this afternoon, saying that the rape was a "crime of opportunity...the defendant had a vulnerable, intoxicated woman in his hotel room and sexually assaulted her."

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​A man has robbed five Brooklyn and Queens businesses at gunpoint, and cops want your help bringing this jerk to justice.

Police say that he began his crime spree on Sept. 25, around 12:15 a.m., when he stormed into a Greenpoint Dunkin Donuts at 356 McGuiness Boulevard, shot a gun, and fled with cash.

The suspected perp then hit a Williamsburg Capital One Bank, located at 185 Broadway, on Oct. 18.

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​As we noted last night, singer Whitney Houston died yesterday at the age of 48. She was found dead of unknown causes in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told the Associated Press that "there were no obvious signs of any criminal intent." The death of the woman with the unbelievable voice also rattled our area. Last night, the Apollo in Harlem saw mourning and memorials. The New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where Houston sang as a child, remembered Houston in a small early morning memorial service. Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan will perform in Houston's honor at tonight's Grammy ceremony. [AP, CBS, Star-Ledger, NBC NY]

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