Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced the latest in a series of subway safety initiatives, placing MTA police officers, state troopers and 750 National Guard members at some of the city’s busiest stations to conduct bag checks.
Following some headline-grabbing incidents underground — including the slashing last week of a conductor that led to what a top transit official called “some kind of work-stoppage charade” by the transit workers union — Hochul said beefing up the uniformed presence in stations will curb rider and worker fears.
“There’s a psychological impact, people worry they could be next, anxiety takes hold,” the governor said. “And riding the subway, which would be part of your everyday life, is filled with stress and trepidation.”
Hochul unveiled a “five-point plan to rid our subways of people who commit crimes” while standing alongside police officers, National Guard troops and MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber at New York City Transit’s Rail Control Center in Midtown.
The five elements are: deploying about 1,000 more uniformed personnel for bag checks; accelerating the installation of cameras on every train and in conductor cabs; a proposed bill that would allow judges to ban people convicted of assault; expanding the number of mental health response teams; and holding regular meetings between transit personnel, police and prosecutors.
The MTA’s police force, which patrols the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, already posts officers at subway stations connected to commuter rail hubs.
The latest anti-crime effort in the subway comes as NYPD numbers show transit crime in 2024 through March 3 is up by 13% from the same period last year and just last week TWU International President John Samuelsen said assaults on workers have increased by nearly 60% from last year.
“No one should have to go through what Alton Scott went through,” Lieber said, citing the veteran subway conductor who was slashed in the neck last week.
Overall, crime in the subway system is rare. According to the MTA’s latest data from January, less than two major crimes took place per one million riders that month. Major crimes are defined by the NYPD as burglary, felony assault, robbery, grand larceny, rape and murder.
Richard Davis, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, praised the plan to put more police in stations, while saying the union’s calls for beefed-up subway security were ignored for months.
“As a result, riders and workers alike have suffered,” Davis said. “While MTA leadership willfully looked the other way, blood has been spilled.”
Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams — who pinned his absence from the latest subway safety announcement on a scheduling conflict — have previously unveiled multiple versions of plans to cut into subway crime and homelessness by increasing the number of police officers in stations.
In an interview on WPIX-11 Wednesday along with Chief Michael Kemper, head of the NYPD Transit Bureau, Adams insisted the new bag checks would not lead to racial or ethnic profiling.
“We’re not profiling, we’re random based on the count, a number,” the mayor said. “And people who don’t want their bag checks can turn around and not enter the system. You don’t have to come through and do the bag checks, but they are random.”
26 comments:
Shouldn’t they be helping Israel to kill thousands more in Gaza?
He’s not called Genocide Joe for nothing.
Where’s all the supposed violence interrupters that are supposed to replace the police and help their communities?
What's the big deal ? This is how she roll...
Barbarians breached the gates! Too late! Time to flee or eat each other during the siege. In the heart of a once-thriving metropolis, chaos erupts as barbarians breach the imposing city gates. The air thickens with tension, and the cacophony of war drums reverberates through the streets. The city’s towering skyscrapers, once symbols of prosperity, now stand as ominous silhouettes against the blood-red sky. The barbarian horde surges forward. Their war cries echo off the glass facades, shattering the illusion of invincibility. Panic grips the populace. Families huddle in cramped apartments, clutching heirlooms and whispered prayers. The elite flee in sleek cars, abandoning their ivory towers. The streets teem with desperate souls—merchants, artists, laborers—all seeking refuge. Barbarians rampage through boutiques as the scent of burning silk mingles with the acrid smoke of smoldering buildings. Walls that once bore sleek advertisements now wear crude graffiti. The barbarians scrawl their tribal symbols—a primal defiance against the city’s consumerist excess. Broken windows frame glimpses of chaos: overturned food trucks, shattered glass, and looted bookstores. Statues crumble. The bronze financier, once a beacon of capitalism, lies decapitated. The marble poet, her verses etched in stone, now serves as a makeshift barricade. The barbarians mock these fallen icons, ignorant of their significance. The subway tunnels, once bustling with commuters, now echo with eerie emptiness. Graffiti artists seize the opportunity, transforming station walls into murals of defiance. The trains lie dormant, their electric hum silenced. And so, in this once-vibrant city, the clash of civilizations unfolds.
Barbarians breached the gates
and marauding begins.
Will you stay for the siege
as pestilence and cannibalism commences?
Or will you flee?
Have they caught anyone stealing hyundai/kias yet?
Aside from wacko,uneducated,ill informed assholes, who calls him "Genocide Joe"?
He'll always be just a crazy old man to me.
Want to fix the problem Kathy the clown, I got two words that will solve the problem "BAIL REFORM".
These guys cannot make an arrest. Their guns are way too big for city streets. It's just a political side show.
Do the sheeple need the National Guard ? Or do the sheeple need more police and prosecutors who follow the law ? Don’t put this on the police. They do their job. This is on Hochul, Alvin Bragg and the so called justice system. Police arrest the trash and it’s not them releasing them with no bail. I have many young friends who are cops and they are just as frustrated.
Maybe New York should legalize recreational marijuana so people could take the edge off. What’s that? You say they did a couple years ago. Well then send in the National Guard to monitor the subways. What’s that … ?
The Big Apple
Rotten To The Core!!
Swagger Man with no plan said crime is down 20%.
I’m glad all that overtime and military presence is doing so well.
Are the Sheeple close to gulags and concentration camps ?
Say her name : Laken Riley
The Sheeple of NY have not voted for a Republican controlled state assembly in almost 50 years, so no sympathy.
Think about this combination of events. Open borders, defund police, no cash bail, no prosecution DAs. Strange coincidence, eh?
This will not matter until the DA's and courts do what they are supposed to do.
The Left's upset that Biden called these illegal migrants "illegal" rather than the woke p.c. "undocumented," and the snarky, arrogant chatter by those Leftists on the Rachel Maddow MSNBC show and their ridicule of people who want the borders protected. Meanwhile our nation is being invaded and our borders are disappearing just like the Roman Empire's demise when the Germanic Tribes and the Huns invaded and sacked Rome. It's coming for us too - unfortunately, the Left doesn't care that nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11 (and thousands more since due to those toxic fumes) or that thousands have died from fentanyl and crimes committed by these illegal migrants - they consider these tragedies the inevitable collateral damage that is part of their plan to turn the USA into a 3rd world one party dystopian dictatorship.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
“Who watches the watchers?”
“Who guards the guards?”
Democrats are far more angry at Joe Biden for saying the word "illegal" than for screwing up Laken Riley's name. Which tells you what you need to know about their priorities.
Why is no NY politician fighting to get the bail laws changed ?
Deep blue and the most corrupt state in the union.
Thanks, Biden!
"Why is no NY politician fighting to get the bail laws changed ? "
Yeah. I see TrumpTurd is still on the loose, even after being charged with multiple crimes.
One bail law for the rich and one for the sheeple.
Kathy Hochul just put the national guard on public transport. The goal is to look through the bags of citizens, in case they have constitutional rights in there.
Post a Comment