NATIONAL SECURITY
New York is the most targeted US city by terrorists
BY Júlia Ledur
Published July 26, 2018
When it comes to terrorism in New York City, the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is the 9/11 attacks. It makes sense since they were the deadliest in America’s history, with 1,380 victims. However, the number of attacks targeting the city is surprising. According to data from the Global Terrorism Database, from 1970 to 2016, exactly 448 attacks have taken place in New York, the most targeted city in the US by terrorists by far. The second in the rank is San Juan, in Puerto Rico, with 115 attacks.
Attacks in the 70s
The majority of the attacks have happened in 1970 and protesting the Vietnam war was their main motivation. The year of 1976 also stands out when it comes to the number of attacks. In this case, there is not a clear pattern in the motives, but the majority of attacks was either claimed by FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional) members who were protesting the presence of Puerto Rican delegation at the Democratic National Convention or protestors opposing to the involvement of banks that participated in the Arab League boycott of Israel.
Change on target cities in the US over the last five decades
Each dot represents an attack.
Undoubtedly, 2001 is the year with the highest terror death toll in US history, due to the 9/11 attacks and the Anthrax attacks. Nevertheless, 1970 has had 10 times more terrorist attacks than 2001, but none of them have resulted in deaths. In fact, 8.1% of attacks in NYC have not had fatalities. So, although the number of attacks in the last few years is considerably lower than in the 70s, the number of deaths and victims has been increasing, as shown in the first graph.
