The Huge Apple’s subway system has been rocked by 5 straight days of violence amid a spike in transit crime — regardless of the NYPD, Nationwide Guard and even criminal crusading guardian angels on patrol.
The grotesque Dec. 22 blaze dying of a New Jersey hobo on a Brooklyn F prepare was only the start of the most recent crime spree that has seen 5 folks stabbed or slashed and a 45-year-old hobo thrown beneath a Manhattan subway prepare since Sunday.
For some metropolis politicians, this has reached breaking level.
“New Yorkers don’t really feel secure in our subways, regardless of the nonsense that Gov [Kathy] Hochul is effervescent,” Metropolis Councilwoman Joanna Ariola (R-Queens) mentioned Thursday. “We should prioritize public security over empty political rhetoric, particularly now that Albany is forcing extra folks to make use of public transit because of its newest congestion pricing tax.”
“Extra guards is nice for optics, however what we actually must do is untie the fingers of the NYPD and allow them to get again to doing their jobs,” Arriola mentioned.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) additionally blamed lawmakers in Albany – and within the city corridor.
“On daily basis we face stabbings, being pushed onto the tracks or worse, being burned alive. However Kathy Hochul says it “makes our subways safer” and that “crime is down,” he mentioned. “New Yorkers are uninterested in being gassed — and much more uninterested in being attacked.
“We’d like an overhaul of the management of the town and the state. They do not care about you!”
Hochul final yr ordered greater than 1,000 Nationwide Guard troops into the transit system in response to rising considerations about subway security, whereas Mayor Eric Adams additionally “put” 1,000 NYPD cops into the subway, a mayoral consultant mentioned final week.
However the violence solely escalated, beginning with the stomach-turning arson the death of 57-year-old Debrina Kawam on Toms River on the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island station, allegedly by undocumented immigrant Sebastian Sapeta-Kalil, who’s now being held on costs of first-degree homicide.
Within the final assault, an Bronx MTA employee stabbed early Thursday morning as he headed to work on the Pelham Parkway station — and his attacker was nonetheless at massive.
4 different straphangers have been slashed on consecutive days since Sunday — 52-year-old man stabbed in arm at Myrtle-Wyckoff L prepare station; A 48-year-old man was stabbed within the neck on the West fiftieth Road and Eighth Avenue station in Manhattan; and two extra on New Yr’s Day.
In these incidents, a 30-year-old man was reduce within the arm after entering into an argument with one other hunter on the a hundred and tenth Road-Cathedral Parkway station, and a 31-year-old man was stabbed within the again on the 14th Road station simply quarter-hour later.
However essentially the most surprising transit terror of the week got here on Tuesday, when music programmer Joseph Lynskey45, was struck within the path of a Manhattan 1 prepare — miraculously saving his life.
The Police in New York arrested Kamel Hawkins23, simply hours later close to Columbus Circle and charged him with tried homicide and assault within the horrific caught on video attack.
General, police statistics present there have been 48 crimes on the general public transport system within the 28 days earlier than Sunday, a 40% enhance on the identical interval in 2023.
The elevated violence prompted Guardian Angels, the town’s vigilante watchdog group, to announce it could resume patrols on the subway for the primary time since 2020.
The Angels, based in 1979 by former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliva, mentioned they’d ship three-man groups into troubled stations across the clock to root out crime.
However thus far, nothing has eased the anxieties amongst New Yorkers touring by prepare.
“This can be a easy cause-and-effect state of affairs that solely requires widespread sense to correctly deal with,” mentioned Metropolis Councilwoman Ina Vernikov (R-Brooklyn). “Sadly, our authorities doesn’t have an abundance of widespread sense in the mean time.
“The violence won’t cease till the authorities begin to perceive sample recognition and legislate accordingly,” she mentioned. “And the truth is that these crimes are dedicated both by unlawful immigrants or by folks with psychological problems of earlier years.”
Added Councilman Joe Borrelli (R-Staten Island), “Possibly all the general public security kabuki theater would not be vital if we simply went again to arresting and prosecuting the dangerous guys.”
Hochul’s workplace and officers at Metropolis Corridor didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
