NEW YORK — They are the two words certain to grab the attention of New Yorkers: Subway crime.
The city’s sprawling mass transit system carries 3.5 million daily riders, a cross-section of all ages and ethnicities. And this year’s jarring 41% jump in subterranean crime has spilled into the upcoming gubernatorial race as city dwellers hope a new policing plan unveiled last week can curb the myriad reports of robberies and increasingly random assaults.
Straphanger Christine Martin, noting the extra police in the subway system this past week, welcomed their arrival during this year of scary and spiraling transit crime.
“I believe police presence and security will help,” said Martin, 58, of Brooklyn. “I think it can be successful if they have the presence of police or some security measures, that will help people feel safer and probably deter any crimes.”
The additional officers arrived courtesy of the new “Cops, Cameras and Care” plan announced Oct. 22 by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams to combat the soaring crime rate for mass transit riders.
Some of the subway crime numbers are particularly eye-popping, including jumps of 63% for grand larceny, 33% for robberies and 18% for felony assault so far in 2022. The NYPD also reported nine murders on mass transit, up from six last year at this point.
Republican gubernatorial challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island has cited the headline-making subway incidents and crime in general as the Nov. 8 election looms, laying the blame on his Democratic opponent.
“This is the dangerous reality of life in Kathy Hochul’s New York,” said Zeldin in a recent tweet.
Other subway riders, in a year where the system turned 118 years old, are taking a wait and see approach on the new police crackdown.
“Visual of more police is always good in numbers,” said Charles Smith, 65, of Queens, who rides two trains on his way to work each day. “But Mayor Adams now is just talk.”
Smith said he still sees brazen fare beaters entering the system, even with officers standing nearby in the station. And he remains alert at all times while waiting for the train.
“I always tell my children, ‘Stay against the wall, be aware of your surroundings,’” said Smith, referencing a rash of riders shoved to the tracks. ”I’m aware of my surroundings more than ever — even more on the subway.”
With good reason, it seems.
At 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, a 23-year-old man was stabbed in the torso and leg on the mezzanine level of the Times Square shuttle stop, police said. Cops responding to a call found both the victim and his 22-year-old assailant, who apparently cut himself with the knife during the scuffle.
Over the last week, a 62-year-old man was slugged in the face and shoved to the tracks in the Bronx. A 22-year-old woman inside the elevated 82nd Street-Jackson Heights station in Queens was punched and thrown down the stairs by a stranger.
And a straphanger was randomly stabbed from behind in an unprovoked attack as he waited for a train on the platform at the West 125th Street station in Manhattan, with the suspect seen urinating nearby before the assault.
“What’s going on in New York?” asked the 62-year-old victim. “We have these outlaws that are using the subway system to commit crimes.”
The Hochul/Adams plan addresses both law enforcement and aid to the subway’s homeless, with a promised additional 1,200 additional daily police shifts across the mass transit system. The MTA was also placing unarmed guards at certain subway stations to upgrade security and cut back on farebeaters.
Adams, in a Friday appearance on WPIX-TV, said he was already receiving kudos from subway-riding New Yorkers.
“When I’m on the system, I’m hearing people saying ‘Thank you,’” the mayor said, citing the arrests of 5,000 suspects in the subways thus far this year. “(Saying) ‘you have responded to the actual crime on the subways and the feeling we were having because of what we were hearing all the time about crime on the subway system.’”
For Clinton Winth, 57, of Brooklyn, the mayor’s plan was cause for both optimism and skepticism.
“I think it will work ... people need to be safe on the subway,” said Winth. “You have so much going on in the subways, whether it’s people being pushed off the platforms or the homeless. I’m glad they’re doing something about it, because the subways have gotten worse.”
But Winth said he still mostly drives his car rather than taking the train. And while on the subway, he keeps his guard up.
“There’s people on the train that become violent when attacked,” said Winth. “I’m not scared. I just stay alert and aware of my surroundings.”
Martin, a child care facility operator, said New Yorkers deserve safer conditions when they enter the subway system.
“We shouldn’t have to go through any violence on the train,” she said. “I haven’t experienced it. But I know it’s there.”
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