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(Video Credit: PIX11 News)
At least six people were stabbed over the weekend in New York City’s subway system after Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new safety plan to combat violent crime and the homeless problem on public transit.
On Friday, Adams and Hochul announced that the new “Subway Safety Plan” would address safety concerns and support the homeless and mentally ill, while cracking down on anyone caught sleeping across multiple seats, exhibiting aggressive behavior towards passengers, or creating an “unsanitary environment” in the subway transit system.
“It is cruel and inhumane to allow unhoused people to live on the subway, and unfair to paying passengers and transit workers who deserve a clean, orderly, and safe environment,” Adams proclaimed in a statement. “The days of turning a blind eye to this growing problem are over.”
“For too long our mental health care system suffered from disinvestment, and the pandemic has only made things harder for New Yorkers with serious mental illness who are experiencing homelessness,” Hochul noted in a separate statement.
“We must work together to keep our subways — the lifeblood of New York City — safe for all riders, and to get help and services to those in need,” she added.
(Video Credit: NYC Mayor’s Office)
Five of those stabbings over the weekend happened within 24 hours following Adams and Hochul revealing their comprehensive 17-page “Subway Safety Plan.” The plan will put more police on subway platforms and in transit, as well employing a mental health team beginning on Monday. Up to 30 teams will reportedly be dispatched to the subway systems to handle the violence.
A sixth individual was stabbed on Sunday evening while riding the number 6 line near Canal Street, according to the New York Police Department.
During the first stabbing that was reported on Friday evening, a man was reportedly slashed in the forearm at approximately 5 p.m., according to NBC New York. Police said he was transported to the hospital in stable condition.
At least four stabbing incidents were reported on Saturday. One suspect allegedly punched a 20-year-old woman in the back around 3 p.m., according to police. An argument followed the assault and the man allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed the woman three times in the abdomen. She was also transported to a hospital in stable condition.
Unless you actively take #MTA in #NYC meaning not having the luxury of taking a car service to & from around the city you can’t speak to the anxiety people are feeling right now when it comes to the subways. They are not safe & all of these talk about policies but no real action.
— Support Dapeoplesassembly or Donate (@ah_di_teacher) February 21, 2022
At approximately 8:30 p.m. Saturday evening, a 24-year-old man was reportedly stabbed in the leg with a boxcutter after two teens approached him and tried to rob him. The suspects fled the scene, according to police.
Another stabbing took place around 9 p.m. A suspect and another individual were reportedly smoking an unknown substance when the victim requested that they move. The suspect then allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim in the arm. The person who was attacked was treated for a puncture wound at a local hospital and is said to be in stable condition according to the NYPD.
No arrests were made in the stabbing incidents.
The attacks come as crime on public transit in New York City spirals out of control. Major crimes are up 65 percent this year, according to NBC New York. The surge follows the violent death of Michelle Go, an Asian-American 40-year-old woman who worked for Deloitte and died when she was pushed in front of a New York subway train in January.
She was reportedly pushed from behind by a homeless man named Simon Martial who had been waiting for a train at the Times Square station.
Slashings & stabbings in the New York City subway system are off the rails – The slicings soared 29% last year & the bloodshed continues with 27 incidents so far this year, up 35% from the 20 in the same period last year – Do we need a cop in every car of the subway?
— charles benjamin (@chaleeboh3131) February 20, 2022
In one attack that didn’t involve a knife over the weekend, a woman was beaten with a metal pipe in the Bronx, according to ABC 7 News.
Early Monday morning, a 42-year-old man was standing on a southbound subway platform at the Franklin Avenue station in Brooklyn at approximately 12:30 a.m. when a suspect pulled a hatchet out of his jacket and lunged at him. He was not struck and ran to find the police, who apprehended a 58-year-old suspect with prior arrests. They seized the hatchet.
That is just a small subsection of the violence occurring in New York’s transit system every day.
“The subway system and our bus system, they are the lifeblood of our city,” Adams remarked according to CNN. “If we don’t get them right, our city won’t continue to recover from COVID. Millions of New Yorkers use the system to go to school, to go to their place of employment, and just to visit their loved ones. It provides a vital service.”
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