Violent crime has created a grim new regular in Large Apple subway stations — the platform wallflower.
Skittish straphangers are steering away from the sting — and pinning their backs to the wall as they await their prepare, terrified they’ll change into the following sufferer of a random shove onto the tracks, riders advised The Submit.
On two afternoons not too long ago, The Submit witnessed a whole bunch of riders hugging the partitions inside stations at East 86th, East 77th, East 68th, East 59th and East 51st streets, and West 18th Road, 14th Road-Union Sq., and Wall Road.
“Ever for the reason that [attack last month], I don’t put on my headphones and I be certain that I avoid the platform edge,” stated West 18th Road straphanger Mariana Castillo, 25, referring to the near-fatal assault on the identical station on Dec. 31. Police stated Joseph Lynskey was pushed onto the tracks by an unhinged Kamel Hawkins.
“I’ve undoubtedly began shifting again so far as I can,” stated Hoboken resident Tanner Crochet, citing the identical incident, as he waited for a southbound 6 prepare at East 51st Road.
“[Lynskey] in all probability thought that nothing like that might occur to him, as a result of that’s what everybody thinks,” stated Crochet, 23, who additionally tries to face close to cops if he sees them.
Even MTA board member Lisa Daglian takes precautions.
“If there’s not plenty of house . . . I’ll both stroll very near the wall and hug that wall, or I’ll keep the place I’m,” she advised The Submit. “And possibly meaning I gained’t be within the place I wish to be on the prepare, but when there are plenty of different folks lined up, I could not wish to danger strolling by them.”
Sheila Rodgers, 62, additionally stays away from platform entrances. “It’s my worry that anyone comes down from the road offended and the primary individual they see, they shove,” she stated on the West 18th Road subway station.
“I all the time stand again so far as I can now,” stated Roosevelt Island resident Penny James, 59, whose backbone was virtually plastered to the blue barricade contained in the 59th Road station whereas awaiting a southbound 6 prepare.
The alarming pattern caught hearth on social media this week.
“New Yorkers wait towards the platform partitions for the prepare. That is what dwelling in worry seems to be like,” reads the caption of a picture of 9 straphangers hugging the wall on the East 86th Road 6 station. The picture, posted on X by Asian Wave Alliance President Yiatin Chu on Wednesday, has amassed an eye-popping 3.7 million views.
A separate picture posted to Instagram exhibits a minimum of eight straphangers pinned to the wall on the East 51st Road 6 station, and is captioned, “How completely everybody stands now after the latest subway pushings/altercations.”
Final 12 months, the subway system noticed 10 murders – the very best in 25 years – in addition to 579 felony assaults, which was barely greater than there have been in 2023, in keeping with knowledge from the NYPD’s transit bureau.
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