New York City in the middle of the 20th century had a justifiable reputation as a den of basically every single sin, vice, crime and depravity that we have a name for. The old timers today will still tell you how it was during the 1970s, when you couldn't walk down the street without getting mugged, robbed, busted by crooked cops, carjacked, solicited by prostitutes and panhandled—all at the same time.

The tide turned throughout the 1990s and for a few decades New York has been regarded as a pretty safe place to live. That appears to be changing, um, somewhat rapidly [WARNING GRAPHIC]:

Yes that was a dude getting straight up shanked in the face in the middle of the day.

Now, it might be reasonable to ask: Maybe there were extenuating circumstances here. Maybe this is the result of some sort of squabble between the victim and the assailant and it's not at all representative of New York itself.

You know who's not wondering about that sort of thing? People who live in New York and are dealing with the spiraling crime rates there. When it's in your neighborhood—increasingly every day—it doesn't really matter what's causing it.

The song—you know the song—proclaims that New York is a place "where dreams are made of / There's nothin' you can't do." Increasingly it seems that more and more nightmares are being made there as well.