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In the following days New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared that New York City subway security had improved, a woman was burned alive, a man was pushed in front of an oncoming train, and gangs of illegal immigrants robbed straphangers .
Just before Christmas, the Democrat took to X to claim that, since March, she has taken steps to make the subways “safer for the millions of people who ride the trains every day.”
“Since the (New York National Guard) was deployed to support (the NYPD) and MTA security efforts and the addition of cameras to all subway cars, crime has gone down and the number of users is increasing,” he wrote on December 22.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), although primarily serving the five boroughs, Long Island, and the suburbs of the Lower Hudson Valley, is a state agency, not operated by the city.
However, in this short time, an illegal immigrant set a woman on fire on an F train, a man miraculously survived being pushed in front of a 1 train, and Venezuelan gang members have been robbing straphangers at will.
In Coney Island, Guatemalan citizen Sebastian Zapeta was charged with murder after he allegedly set a woman from Toms River, New Jersey on fire as she slept aboard an F train at the Stillwell Avenue terminal. That incident happened in the morning of December 22, hours before Hochul’s publication.
The victim, Debrina Kawam, once worked for Merck Pharmaceuticals in the early 2000s, but had most recently lived in a New York City homeless shelter.
Zapeta’s arraignment is set for Tuesday. He told NYPD he was drinking too much alcohol and “doesn’t know what happened,” according to NBC News.
“My office is very confident in the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his heinous acts,” Kings County Democratic District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said of the case.
Earlier this week, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins of Brooklyn allegedly pushed an unsuspecting straphanger into the path of a South Ferry 1 train at the W 18th Street station in Chelsea.
Hawkins initially escaped, but was soon captured near Columbus Circle and Central Park, according to reports. The injured victim’s survival was hailed as a miracle as he fell into a ‘trench’ between the tracks as the train hit him and was taken by ambulance to hospital with head injuries.
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Hawkins had prior arrests for beating a police officer in Queens. Her father, Shamel Hawkins, told the New York Post, “We think somebody put something in her weed.”
Shamel Hawkins said Kamel had been “acting strange” recently and “needs help” but continues to refuse to seek it.
On New Year’s Day, WPIX reported two separate unprovoked subway stabbings during daylight hours on the West Side. A 30-year-old man was reportedly stabbed in the head and hip while waiting for a 1 train at 110th Street and Broadway. The station is located in one of the safest areas of Manhattan, close to Columbia University, St. John’s Cathedral and the famous restaurant. on the sitcom “Seinfeld.”
Another man was stabbed while waiting for a 2 train at 14th Street and 7th Avenue that same day, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, authorities have found 22 of them Aragua train migrant gang members during a raid on a residence in Crotona Park, Bronx, last month. Federal law enforcement had traced the ankle monitor of Jarwin Valero-Calderon, a Venezuelan national originally detained in Nassau County and under a deportation order, to the building.
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Hochul said in an X video on his account, called “This week in New York,” that his “five-point plan to improve metro safety” has seen overall metro crime drop by 10% since March 2023.
Hochul also said he will deploy 250 more members of the National Guard to participate in Joint Task Force: Empire Shield.
In its December report on November’s crime statistics, the NYPD said subway crime had dropped 15 percent that month from 240 reported incidents to 202 and a 6 percent decrease from last year’s 2,137 in 2002.
The NYPD said the subways saw their safest numbers to date in more than a decade.
“We’re all in this together, and while the downward trends in violence and disorder in New York City are very encouraging as we enter the final month of 2024, we have much more work to do to deliver the public safety that New Yorkers deserve,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said in a statement Dec. 3.
However, New Yorkers in general have been feeling less safe on the MTA lately.
“Kathy Hochul needs to resign,” wrote commenter Chaya Raichik – or “LibsOfTikTok” on X after chronicling some of the recent subway incidents and claiming that some of the recent undercover robberies were committed by gang members Train from Aragua.
“Of course he won’t resign. These people only care about their power and perks,” FOX Business anchor David Asman wrote in a response. “Only New Yorkers can get rid of her.”
“Daniel Penny as governor,” commented another X user, referring to the man acquitted of the death of a crazed straphanger who had been threatening passengers earlier this year.
MTA President Janno Lieber pledged during a March traffic board meeting “we’re not going back” to the mid-20th century when the subway was incredibly unsafe. “This is a nightmare for New Yorkers,” she said after learning that Carlton McPherson, whom neighbors described to the Post as “a little deranged,” had recently fatally pushed a man in front of a 4 train which was going to Woodlawn at 125th Street in Harlem. .
MTA President Janno Lieber and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. (Getty)
Mayor Eric Adams he also addressed public sentiment in remarks earlier this year.
“Public safety is real safety and it’s how people feel,” he said in March. “We know we have more than 4 million riders a day and a reliable system. We know we have about six crimes a day from those 4 million riders. But if they don’t feel safe, we’re not doing our job.”
“Statistics don’t matter if people don’t believe they’re in a safe environment,” he said, according to WNBC.
Lieber said at the March meeting he would not be “handing our city over to anyone.”
