NYPD cabin in the New York Subway.
Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy
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Two teenagers were caught brutally beating two NYPD officers after they confronted them for allegedly jumping the turnstile, an increasingly common crime on the New York City Subway.
The released video shows the teens – a man and a woman – punching the police and even putting one of the officers in a headlock. It reportedly happened Saturday night at the 125th St.-Lexington Ave. station in East Harlem.
“The 16-year-old turned verbally aggressive for more than three minutes with officers,” an NYPD spokesperson told Fox News. “Officers tried to stop him when he started assaulting them.” The teen was charged with assault on officers and other charges, but the Benevolent Association (PBA), the largest police union in New Yorkdenounced that he was back on the streets in less than 24 hours.
The brutal incident coincides with new data showing that crime in the city’s transit system increased 53% compared to last year. In parallel, only in the first three months of this year the MTA lost $62 million in revenue from turnstile jumpers and an additional $57 million from passengers taking free rides on the buses, noted Pix11. Since then, the number of stowaways has worsened.
Reacting to the video of the aggressive teens, Mayor Eric Adams -former NYPD- demanded that Governor Kathy Hochul call an emergency session of the state legislature to reform controversial criminal justice laws after they were released without bail.
But “despite the disturbing nature of the video, the pleas of the mayor and the head of the police union for the state to take action fell on deaf ears,” he summarized. CBS2.
“While Hochul reported the attack, he is also apparently aware that, in the heat of a hotly contested re-election campaign (for governor in November), calling a legislature that resists changing the laws would become a political shame.
“I’m trying to understand what the thought process was (…) I understand that the law we established was to deal with repeat offenders,” Hochul said when asked about the release.
What aggravates the situation is that the adolescent in this case does not have one but two previous arrests this year. In addition to the robbery, police say he was also arrested for possession of a loaded gun.
“If New Yorkers want to know why the chaos in the transit system isn’t getting better faster, here’s why. We police officers take risks to make the Metro safer, but we feel abandoned by a justice system that does not support us”
Patrick J. Lynch, President of PBA, the largest police union in NY
PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement: “If New Yorkers want to know why the chaos in the transit system isn’t getting better faster, here’s why. Undercover criminals know they can get into a fight, strangle a cop, and be back out in hours. We police officers take risks to make the Metro safer, but we feel abandoned by a justice system that does not support us.”
In general, this year there has been a long list of dramatic situations in the New York subway, including robberies, attacks, accidents, natural deaths, suicides, fatal overdoses and homicides.
In particular, last April was one of the most violent months in the history of the New York Subway since its founding in 1904. Mayor Adams, whose election campaign focused on public safety, has implemented several measures to make the subway safer, including deploying more police officers to stations and cars. But so far crime is still on the rise.
