If progressives don't want people to act in self-defense or defend others on the subway; state We have to keep us safe, Governor Hochul. still It won't protect us from the worst subway conditions in the last 30 years.
New Yorkers are right to worry that good Samaritans will be less likely to take action. rear Daniel Penny's acquittal on criminal negligence charges for the death of Jordan Neely, who threatened other subway passengers.
Who wants to sit at the defense table for eight weeks?
Imani-Ciara Pizarro, one of the two victims of the random stabbing at Grand Central on Christmas Eve, told the Post that witnesses to the attack “just froze up.”
Making rational people think twice before helping others will make the subway even more dangerous than it is now – despite Hochul's absurd rhetoric. teeth safety.
Hochul's response to the gruesome murder of an unidentified woman set on fire on a moving F train on December 22nd went beyond caricature. Her office boasted to X about its “action” in March to deploy the National Guard to trains.
“Crime is down,” the poster boasted.
Her follow-up could not have been better. Thanks to “brand new security cameras,” police arrested the suspect in the arson murder, Hochul said, adding a warning: Crime on the subway has decreased. ”
Which subway crimes are decreasing?
Murder, the crime people are most concerned about, is breaking decades-old records.
This year, 12 people have lost their lives to violence on the subway, most of them unprovoked murders between strangers.
The victims start with grandfather Richard Henderson, who was killed on a Brooklyn train in January while trying to quell a dispute over music, and end (so far) with the Coney Island fire.
This brings to 43 deaths on the subway since March 2020, when three murders occurred within weeks of each other. above Early in the pandemic, subways ushered in a surge of disorienting violence.
Surprisingly, one of the murders of 2020, that of subway driver Garrett Goble, was also arson.
Dozens of killings this year broke the previous record of 11 in 2022, set in 2020, a year in which Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin almost defeated Hochul due to concerns over subway violence. It was the year in which we achieved this.
In the decades leading up to 2020, New York had been rooting out underground violence that began in 1990 and stopping small-scale crimes before they escalated into large-scale crimes, but subway murders were still at about one per year. Two cases occurred.
Before 2020, 20 years — We've tallied up 43 subway murders dating back to the new millennium.
This is so bad that it doesn't matter whether other crimes are “down” or not.
Anyway, other subway crimes it's not At least, it's nowhere near the normal levels before 2020.
This year, through November, Subway passengers and employees were charged with 947 violent felonies. Yes, this is 9.5% lower than last year, but it is also 14.1% lower On top of that 2019 numbers.
After adjusting for post-COVID-19 ridership declines, the violence rate per ride is even higher, increasing by almost two-thirds.
Another thing about these murder statistics: 4 More than 10% of murders since 2020 have been found to be self-defense cases, including this month's murder.
In theory, these would not be counted in the NYPD's annual homicide count.
Sure, you might think twice about defending someone post-Penny, but the urge to defend myself Still difficult to overcome.
On the day of the fire in Brooklyn, at least four men surrounded, robbed and assaulted another man who was sleeping in a car on the 7th Route in Queens.
The man fought back, fatally stabbing one assailant – and (so far) he You will not be charged with a crime. His surviving robbers do so.
Violence begets legitimate violence. And if progressives don't like it, they have to stop this policy. initial violence.
how?
It's easy to uncover the problem by just scratching the surface of a subway murder or near-murder case.
The suspect in the mid-December fire, Sebastian Zapeta Khalil, 33, entered the country illegally after being deported during the Trump administration.
Zapeta-Khalil is an extreme example of why it is bad policy to invite tens of thousands of unvetted young people into your country for no purpose. especially Unless you're going to enforce low-level laws to curb cheating.
He took advantage of our shelter, got high on synthetic drugs, and passed out drunk.
Neely, whose death on the Manhattan F train triggered the Penny trial, also gained attention when he threatened passengers on K2.
In New York, drug use has been decriminalized. there is nothing To prevent such psychosis-inducing addictions.
Or get last week's non–The fatal stabbing in Grand Central – reportedly committed by Jason Sargent, a man with a history of arrests for criminal mischief, assault and assault on a police officer.
Elected officials don't want someone like Penny protecting others on the subway, but they won't protect us from predictable violence.
Therefore, our subway system will be such that all strong people move on their own, and weaker people move on their own.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.
