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Alarm before rise in crimes in the subway | Your Political City New York

Subway conditions and safety have become a concern for many New Yorkers. And it is that in recent months, the city’s transport system has been scene of several serious crimes. Police say crime on the MTA has decreased in recent years, however, their numbers face a challenge: ridership has also decreased, due to the pandemic, making it difficult to compare numbers.

Michelle Go, 40, was on platform N, Q and R in the city center when she was suddenly pushed in front of an arriving train around 9:40 a.m. on Saturday. Simon Martial, 61, a man with a history of mental health problems and a criminal record, turned himself in to police and confessed to the crime at the time it happened.

Go’s case is not the only one. In September, three transit employees were assaulted on the same day, in three separate incidents. In May, several passengers were stabbed and assaulted by a group of attackers on a train in lower Manhattan. In addition, there were four separate stabbings, two of them fatal, in February.

Alarm among New Yorkers for crimes in the subway

This Sunday, the Associated Press spoke with some passengers waiting for the train in Times Square, after its reopening for the crime on Saturday. They said that while they were aware and sorry for what had happened, they had to continue riding the subway.

“I try to be aware of my surroundings,” said Jonathan Jones, who was waiting for a Q train. And so, he explained, he tries not to get distracted by using the phone all the time and don’t fall asleep on the train.

In general, the number of passengers using the subway in NYC is less than half of what it was before the pandemic began. Despite that, according to NYPD crime statistics, traffic crimes increased 81.5% between the first full week of January 2021 and the same period this year.

On Sunday, multiple police patrols were highly visible at the Times Square station.

Many passengers said they feel safer with more police around, but some passengers said they don’t see as many police as they would like. One of them is Moses Romero: “They are not as present, in my opinion,” he told the AP, referring to the visibility of the police throughout the subway system. “I’m from the Bronx, and I don’t see that many cops on the platform.”

Adams asks for calm before the crimes in the subway

Saturday’s attack came shortly after Gov. Kathy Hochul joined Mayor Eric Adams to discuss the state of the subway. Hochul said he planned to assemble five teams of social workers and medical professionals to help the city guide people living on the streets and in the subway to shelters, housing and services.

For his part, Adams assured New Yorkers on Sunday that the city’s subway system is safe after a woman was killed when she was pushed in front of an oncoming train.

“New Yorkers are safe on the subway system. I think about 1.7 percent of crime in New York City occurs in the subway system. Think about that for a moment… What we must do is eliminate the perception of fear”.

Three violent attacks on a New York subway train

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