Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated New York’s record low prison population even as shootings soared by a whopping 277 per cent compared to the same week last year.

During a news conference, de Blasio employed “doublespeak” worthy of Orwell when he claimed that allowing more criminals out on the street actually makes New Yorkers “safer.”

“We now have fewer people in our jails than any time since [World War II], and we are safer and better for it,” he said.

However, the soaring crime rate in New York City suggest otherwise.