If progressives don't want people acting in self-defense or defending others on the subway, then… state He should keep us safe – but Governor Hochul Still It won't protect us from the deadliest subway environment in three decades.
It is reasonable for New Yorkers to fear that good Samaritans will be less likely to act after Daniel Penny has been acquitted of criminal negligence in the death of Jordan Neely, who threatened other subway riders.
Who wants to sit at the defense table for eight weeks?
As Imani Ciara Pizarro, one of the two victims of the random stabbing in Grand Central on Christmas Eve, told The Washington Post, witnesses to the attack “just froze.”
Making reasonable people think twice before helping someone else makes the subway even more dangerous than it already is – despite Hochul's ridiculous rhetoric that they We are security.
Hochul's response to the horrific murder of a yet-to-be-identified woman on a moving F train on December 22 was beyond caricature: Her office was bragging to X about the “action” she took in March to deploy the Guard National on trains.
“Crime is going down,” the post boasted.
Their follow-up wasn't any better: Thanks to “brand-new security cameras,” Hochul noted, police arrested a murder suspect, adding a warning: “Make no mistake: any crime is one too many crimes, even with murder.” Subway crime is down.”
What subway crimes have decreased?
The crime that people worry about most — murder — is breaking decades-old records.
This year, 12 people lost their lives due to subway violence, with most of the incidents being unprovoked killings by strangers on strangers.
The victims began with Grandpa Richard Henderson, who was killed last January on a train in Brooklyn while trying to quell a dispute over music, and ended (so far) with the Coney Island fire.
That means 43 people have been killed on the subway since March 2020, when three murders occurred in a matter of weeks — with just a few more. on The subway in those early days of the pandemic — led to a disorienting wave of violence.
Surprisingly, one of those 2020 murders — that of subway driver Garrett Goble — was also an arson.
This year's dozens of killings shattered the post-2020 record of 11 in 2022 — a year in which concerns about subway violence propelled GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin to a close victory over Hochul.
For decades before 2020, after eliminating underground violence that began in 1990 by stopping small crimes before they escalated into major crimes, New York recorded one or two subway murders annually.
Before 2020, it took 20 years — Back in the new millennium – to count 43 murders on the subway.
This is too bad, and it does not matter if other crimes have “declined.”
Anyway, other subway crimes it's not It's down — at least, not close to the pre-2020 normal level.
This year, through November, subway passengers and workers suffered 947 violent crimes. Yes, that's 9.5% lower than last year – but it's also 14.1%. above 2019 numbers.
Adjust for lower post-coronavirus ridership, and the violence rate per flight will be higher, by about two-thirds.
Another thing about homicide statistics: four The killings since 2020 — more than 10% — have been determined to be self-defense, including one case just this month.
These, in theory, do not count in the NYPD's annual homicide numbers.
In fact, while you might think twice before defending someone else after Penny, the desire to defend is same It remains difficult to overcome.
On the day of the deadly Brooklyn fire, at least four men surrounded, robbed, and assaulted another sleeping man on a Queens 7 train.
The man resisted, and one of the attackers was fatally stabbed – and (until now) he He does not face charges; The surviving thieves do.
Violence begets justified violence. If progressives don't like it, they should stop doing it first violence.
how?
Scratch the surface of a murder or near-murder on the subway, and it's easy to spot the problem.
The suspect in the mid-December fire, 33-year-old Sebastian Zabieta Calil, entered the country illegally after being deported under Trump.
Zabita Kalil is an extreme example of why inviting tens of thousands of unscreened young people with nothing to do to your country is bad policy – especially If you will not enforce low-level laws that rein in misconduct.
He was exploiting our shelters, getting high on synthetic marijuana and drinking alcohol.
Neely, whose death on the Manhattan F train sparked the Penney trial, was also high on K2 when he threatened passengers.
New York, having decriminalized drug use, does so nothing To prevent such psycholeptic poisoning.
Or take other than last week–The fatal stabbings in Grand Central — allegedly committed by Jason Sargeant, a man with a history of arrests for criminal mischief, battery and assault of an officer.
Elected officials don't want people like Penny defending others on the subway, but they won't protect us from predictable violence.
So our subway system becomes every strong man for himself, with the weaker people on their own.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.