National Guard Sent to New York Subways

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A series of recent, high-profile crimes in the New York City subway system prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday to send National Guard members into the sprawling underground network.

Hochul is ordering a force of nearly 1,000 people, comprised of 750 National Guard members, state police and MTA officers, to conduct bag checks at some of the busiest stations.

The effort, Hochul said, is aimed to "rid our subways of people who commit crimes and (to) protect all New Yorkers whether you're a commuter or a transit worker."

"No one heading to their job or to visit family or go to a doctor appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon," she told reporters.

Thomas Taffe, the MTA Police Department’s chief of operations, said "reducing the fear of crime" is as important as "reducing crime itself."

Several recent, well-publicized attacks have led to increasing anxiety on New York City subways.

Island
“Let me be very, very clear,” Hochul said. “These brazen, heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated.”

This past Sunday, a 64-year-old man was checking his phone when he was kicked into the tracks at Penn Station before good Samaritans helped get him out of harm's way.

A 27-year-old man on Friday was slashed aboard a northbound A train in Manhattan after the perpetrator allegedly made homophobic comments at him.

And on Thursday, Feb. 29, a subway conductor was slashed in the neck in Brooklyn, when he stuck his head out of a southbound C train at Rockaway Avenue station in Brooklyn.

The governor called for a major expansion.

Hochul also said she's proposing legislation that would empower judges to ban subway criminals from riding New York City rails. She equated her proposal to laws that bar motorists convicted of DWI from getting behind the wheel.

Despite this recent uptick in subway crime, MTA CEO Janno Lieber insisted that a disproportionate amount of these bad underground acts are committed by a relatively small number of New Yorkers.

There were 38 people arrested and accused of crimes against transit employees last year and those suspects had more than 600 prior arrests, according to the Lieber. He claimed that 1% of subway suspects were responsible for more than 20% of the crime.

So, how violent is it now compared to back in the '70s?

No comparison. Much more then

According to the NYPD, there were 570 reports of felony assault on trains or in stations in 2023, that's the highest number in more than 20 years and a 53% jump from pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, there were only 373 felony assaults reported.

In 2024 so far, there have been 53 assaults reported, compared to just 40 this time last year.

In the 1960s, mayor Robert Wagner ordered an increase in the Transit Police force from 1,219 to 3,100 officers. During the hours at which crimes most frequently occurred (between 8:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.), the officers went on patrol in all stations and trains. In response, crime rates decreased, as extensively reported by the press. Due to another crime increase in the subway, the rear cars of subway consists were shut at night beginning in July 1974.

However, during the subway's main era of decline following the city's 1976 fiscal crisis, there were daily reports of crime. Two hundred were arrested for possible subway crimes in the first two weeks of December 1977 under an operation dubbed "Subway Sweep". Violence on the subway increased drastically in the last week of 1978, and six murders occurred in the first two months of 1979, compared to nine during the entire previous year. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line was known to frequent muggers, so in February 1979, Curtis Sliwa's Guardian Angels group began patrolling the 4 train during the night. By February 1980, there were 220 Guardian Angels across the system.

While daily felonies were nearly halved between 1979 and 1980, decreasing from 261 to 154, overall crime increased by 70% in the same period. A series of window-smashing incidents on subway cars started in 1980 on the IRT Pelham Line and spread throughout the rest of the system, causing delays when damaged trains needed to be taken out of service. Over a thousand pieces of damaged windows were replaced between January 27 and February 2, 1985. Other actions included increasing the 60-cent fare to 65 cents to pay the salaries of additional transit police;putting a subway-crimes court in the Times Square station; and stationing a police officer in each car during night hours.

Richard Ravitch, chairman of the MTA, said that even he was scared of going on the subway. Despite the MTA discussing methods to increase ridership, the 1982 figures fell to levels last seen in 1917. Within less than ten years, the MTA had lost around 300 million passengers, mainly because of fears of crime.

The increase of crime in the subway led to the firing of Transit Police Chief Sanford Garelik. There were about 250 felonies (equivalent to 13,000 per year) occurring in the system every week by September 1979; some police officers had to stop patrolling quality of life crimes and look only for violent crimes.

MTA police radios and New York City Police Department radios transmitted at different frequencies, so they could not coordinate with each other. Subway patrols were also adherent to tight schedules, and felons quickly knew when and where police would make patrols. Public morale of the MTA police was low at the time. so that by October 1979, additional decoy and undercover units were deployed in the subway.