The Big Apple subway system has been wracked by five straight days of violence amid a spike in transit crime — despite the NYPD, National Guard and even the crime-crusading Guardian Angels on patrol.
The horrifying Dec. 22 torching death of a New Jersey straphanger on a Brooklyn F train was only the beginning of the latest underground crime spree, which has seen five people stabbed or slashed and a 45-year-old straphanger thrown under a Manhattan subway train since Sunday.
For some city politicians, it’s reached the breaking point.
“New Yorkers do not feel safe on our subways, despite the nonsense that Gov. [Kathy] Hochul is spouting,” city Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said Thursday. “We need to prioritize public safety over empty political rhetoric, especially now that Albany is forcing more people into public transportation thanks to their latest congestion pricing tax.
“More Guardsmen is great for optics, but what we really need to do is untie the hands of the NYPD and let them start doing their jobs again,” Ariola said.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) also faulted lawmakers in Albany — and at City Hall.
“Every day, we face stabbings, shoves onto tracks, or worse, being burned alive. But Kathy Hochul says she’s ‘making our subways safer,’ and that ‘crime is down,’” he said. “New Yorkers are tired of being gaslit— and even more tired of being assaulted.
“We need an overhaul of city & state leadership. They don’t care about you!”
Hochul last year ordered more than 1,000 National Guard troops into the transit system in response to growing concerns over subway safety, while Mayor Eric Adams “surged” 1,000 NYPD cops into the underground as well, a rep for the mayor said last week.
But the violence has only increased, starting with the stomach-turning arson death of 57-year-old Debrina Kawam of Toms River at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island station, allegedly by illegal migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, who is now being held on first-degree murder charges.
In the most recent attack, an MTA worker in the Bronx was stabbed early Thursday morning while heading to work at the Pelham Parkway station — with his assailant still on the loose.
Four other straphangers have been slashed in consecutive days since Sunday — a 52-year-old man knifed in the arm at the Myrtle-Wyckoff L train station; a 48-year-old man slashed in the neck at the West 50th Street and Eighth Avenue station in Manhattan; and two others on New Year’s Day.
In those incidents, a 30-year-old man was cut in the arm after getting into a dispute with another straphanger at the 110th Street-Cathedral Parkway station, and a 31-year-old man was stabbed in the back at the 14th Street station just 15 minutes later.
But the week’s most shocking transit terror came on Tuesday, when music programmer Joseph Lynskey, 45, was pushed into the path of a Manhattan 1 train — miraculously escaping with his life.
The NYPD arrested Kamel Hawkins, 23, just hours later near Columbus Circle and charged him with attempted murder and assault in the terrifying caught-on-video attack.
Overall, police stats show that in the 28 days leading up to Sunday, there were 48 felony assaults in the city transit system, making for a 40% bump over the same period in 2023.
The increased violence prompted the Guardian Angels, the city’s vigilante watchdog group, to announce that it will resume patrols in the subways for the first time since 2020.
The Angels, founded in 1979 by past mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, said it will send three-member crews into troubled stations around the clock to root out crime.
But so far nothing has eased the concerns among train-riding New Yorkers.
“This is a simple cause-and-effect scenario that only requires common sense to be properly addressed,” Said city Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn). “Unfortunately there is no abundance of common sense in our government right now.
“The violence isn’t going to stop until the powers that be begin to understand pattern recognition and legislate accordingly,” she said. “And the reality is that these crimes are being perpetrated either by illegal migrants or mentally disturbed individuals with priors.”
Added Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), “Maybe all the public safety kabuki theater won’t be necessary if we just go back to arresting and prosecuting bad guys.”
In a statement, City Hall vowed to work with Albany to “do more to prevent random acts of violence.”
“Mayor Adams is committed to improving the lives of New Yorkers, which is why he regularly rides the subway to hear directly from commuters about how to make the system safer,” the statement read.
“The mayor has surged 1,000 police officers into the system, driven down transit and citywide crime, and is delivering real action every day, but he knows that sharing statistics alone showing crime decreases won’t make anyone shaken by these recent tragic incidents feel any safer.
“We must do more to prevent random acts of violence, like working with our partners in Albany to finally pass the Supportive Interventions Act — ensuring those struggling with severe mental illness get the help they need instead of the current, and unacceptable, status quo of waiting for something tragic to happen.”
Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
