Assaults are surging this yr within the subway system — and critics concern it’s getting worse with overcrowding brought on by congestion pricing.
Felony assaults are up 9% to this point this yr, going from 168 to 193 over the identical interval final yr, in response to the NYPD information. They usually’re up a staggering 55% over 2019, the information present.
Of the felony assaults, 54 or about 30%, have been in opposition to cops, in response to the NYPD.
Misdemeanor assaults have fallen 2% to this point this yr from 466 to 456, however are up 3% from six years in the past.
“This shouldn’t be a Hobson‘s selection, however that’s what Gov. Hochul has made it,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) advised The Publish, referring to the governor’s assist for the wildly controversial $9 congestion tax in Manhattan. “Individuals both must cough up hundreds of {dollars} a yr or threat their security.”
These fears turned to actuality Friday morning when a 38-year-old man was stabbed to demise after he bought right into a dispute with a rider who stepped on his foot on a downtown No. 5 prepare on the Brooklyn Bridge-Metropolis Corridor Station in Manhattan, police sources mentioned.
Commuters — particularly those that traded of their automobile keys for MetroCards — have been alarmed by the assault spike.
“I feel it’s gonna maintain getting worse with extra folks down right here,” mentioned G.J. Emajli Kraku, a plumber who travels to town from Bellmore, LI. “I used to drive into town each day, nevertheless it was going to price 120 bucks to take the automobile in.”
Hochul mentioned on the state’s web site final month that subway and bus ridership was up 6% and 9%, respectively, for the reason that toll was enacted Jan. 5.
Metropolis Council Minority Chief Joann Ariola (R-Queens) referred to as the subway the “metropolis’s de facto psychological establishment and homeless shelter, besides with out the medical doctors, beds, or safety.
“Forcing extra New Yorkers underground with this ridiculous congestion pricing scheme goes to place extra folks into contact with the dangerously unwell,” the councilwoman mentioned. “That’s a recipe for catastrophe.”
Metropolis officers have been attempting to stem the rising fears.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has ramped up the variety of cops underground and ordered them to even patrol trains. The NYPD has additionally been drilling down on high quality of life crimes — laying on benches, farebeating and different violations.
And Mayor Eric Adams kicked off the Partnership Help for Transit Homelessness (PATH) to assist the homeless by sending cops with outreach employees into the subways.
Information of an elevated police presence was a welcomed sight to nurse Annemarie Lawson, 64, who travels by subway from Chelsea to Mount Eden within the Bronx.
“I’ve seen that they’re placing police on the subways, and that’s actually useful as a result of I come down right here at 5 a.m. and it’s actually desolate, so I journey with them after they’re down there,” she mentioned.
However Lawson nonetheless has “an total feeling of insecurity.”
“Individuals carry knives on a regular basis, it’s actually exhausting to cease them, and that’s actually scary,” she mentioned.
Subway rider LaShawn Russell mentioned he’s compelled to maintain his head on a swivel. The 34-year-old treks to NYC from Rahlway, NJ, most weekdays the place he works in dwelling well being care.
“I see loopy s–t within the subway each time I take it,” Russell mentioned.
Alisha, 18, commutes from Uniondale, LI, to John Jay Faculty each weekday, the place she is finding out worldwide felony justice. She mentioned the rising crime makes her “actually uncomfortable.”
“It’s began to turn into increasingly more typically, and I feel we’re simply getting used to it, however that’s not proper – we shouldn’t be getting used to having threats on the subway on a regular basis,” she mentioned.
“Too many individuals are getting damage.”
The MTA referred inquiries to the NYPD, which identified that total subway crime was down within the first quarter of this yr to the second lowest stage in 27 years, with main crime dropping by 18% from 568 to 465.
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