In the weeks following the New York Governor. New York City’s subways were safer, a woman was burned alive, a gentleman was shoved in front of an approaching train, and groups of unlawful immigrants have robbed straphangers, according to Kathy Hochul. The Democrat claimed on X simply before Christmas that she has taken action to make streetcars” safer for the millions of people who take the carriages every day” since March. ” Since deploying the]New York National Guard ] to support]the NYPD] and MTA, health initiatives and adding devices to all train vehicles, murder is going down, and ridership is going up”, she wrote on Dec. 22. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority ( MTA ), while mostly serving the five boroughs, Long Island and Lower Hudson Valley suburbs, is a state-operated, not city-operated, agency. But, in that short amount of time, an illegal immigrant set a person on fire on an F coach, a man miraculously survived being shoved in front of a 1 station, and Venezuelan crew members have been robbing straphangers at will. Sebastian Zapeta, a Guatemalan national, was charged with murder in Coney Island after allegedly lighting a woman on fire while she was sleeping on an F train at the Stillwell Avenue Terminal in Toms River, New Jersey. That incident occurred the morning of Dec. 22, hours before Hochul’s post. Debrina Kawam, the victim, previously worked for Merck Pharmaceuticals in the early 2000s before moving to a homeless shelter in New York City. Zapeta’s arraignment has been set for Tuesday. He told the NYPD he overindulges in alcohol and “doesn’t know what happened”, according to NBC News. Kings County Democratic District Attorney Eric Gonzalez described the situation as “my office is very confident about the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his reckless deeds.” At W 18th Street Station in Chelsea earlier this week, Brookly n’s Kamel Hawkins, 23, allegedly shoved an unsuspecting straphanger into the path of a South Ferry-bound 1 train. According to reports, Hawkins initially fled, but he was soon caught close to Central Park and Columbus Circle. The injured victim’s recovery was hailed as a miracle because he fell into a” trench” between the tracks as the train ran over him and was taken to a hospital with head injuries. Prior to this, there were arrests for body-slamming a police officer in Queens, according to Economic Experts Pan Hochang’s” Inflationary” Inflatation Refundshaw. His father, Shamel Hawkins, told the New York Post,” We think somebody put something in his weed” .Shamel Hawkins said Kamel had been “acting weird” recently and that he “needs help” but continues to refuse to seek it. WPIX reported two separate, unprovoked stabbings on the West Side on New Year’s Day during daylight hours. A 30-year-old man was reportedly stabbed in the head and hip awaiting a 1 train at 110 Street and Broadway. The station is in otherwise one of the safer areas of Manhattan, near Columbia University, St. John’s Cathedral and the diner made famous in the sitcom” Seinfeld “.Another man was stabbed while awaiting a 2 train at 14th Street and 7th Avenue that same day, according to the outlet. In addition, last month during a raid on a home in Crotona Park, Bronx, authorities discovered 22 members of the Tren de Aragua migrant gang. Jarwin Valero-Calderon, a Venezuelan national who was originally detained in Nassau County and was issued a deportation order, was being tracked by federal law enforcement to the building’s ankle monitor. In an X video on her account, known as” This Week in New York,” Hochul claimed that her “five-point plan to improve subway safety” has resulted in a 10 % decrease in overall subway crime since March 2023. Hochul also stated that she will send 250 more National Guard personnel to join Joint Task Force: Empire Shield. In its December report on November’s crime stats, the NYPD listed subway crime as having decreased 15 % that month from 240 reported incidents to 202 and a year-to-date decrease of 6 % from 2, 137 to 2, 002. According to the NYPD, the subways experienced their safest year-over-year increase in more than a decade. We are all in this together, and while the decline in violence and disorder in New York City is encouraging as we approach the end of 2024, there is still much more work to do, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch’s statement from December 3. However, New Yorkers overall felt less safe on the MTA as of late. Chaya Raichik, a commentator for” LibsOfTikTok,” wrote on X to discuss some of the recent subway incidents and claim that some of the recent underground robberies were carried out by Tren de Aragua gang members. ” Of course she won’t resign. According to FOX Business host David Asman, these people only care about their wealth and benefits. ” Only New Yorkers can get rid of her,” she said. Another X user commented,” Daniel Penny for governor,” referring to the man who was found not guilty of murdering a crazed straphanger earlier this year. We are not going back to the middle of the 20th century, when the subway was incredibly unsafe, according to MTA Chairman Janno Lieber at a March transit board meeting. After learning that Carlton McPherson, whom neighbors described to the Post as” a little off,” had recently fatally shoved a man in front of a Woodlawn-bound 4 train on 125 Street in Harlem, he said,” This is a nightmare for New Yorkers.” Eric Adams, the mayor of Phoenix, addressed the public’s opinion in a statement earlier this year. ” Public safety is the actual safety and it’s how people are feeling”, he said in March. We are aware that we have a reliable system and over 4 million riders per day. Out of those 4 million riders, we are aware that we have roughly six felonies per day. But if they don’t feel safe, then we’re not accomplishing our task”. ” Stats don’t matter if people don’t believe they are in a safe environment”, he said, according to WNBC. At the March meeting, Lieber stated that he would not be” surrendering our city to anyone.”
Despite a series of alarming violent attacks, Hochul made a Christmastime bêta of safer train lines.
