Hochul’s Christmas boast about a safer subway came amid a spate of alarming violent attacks
In the days since New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York subway had improved security, 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 said on X that she had taken steps since March to make the subways “safer for the millions of people who ride the trains every day.”
“From setting up [New York National Guard] support [the NYPD] and the MTA, security efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is down and ridership is up,” she wrote on Dec. 22.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), although it mainly serves five boroughs, the suburbs of Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley, is a state agency, not a city agency.
However, in that short time, illegal immigrant set a woman on fire on the F train, a man miraculously survived when he was pushed in front of the 1 train, and Venezuelan gang members robbed straphangers at will.
In Coney Island, Guatemalan national Sebastian Zapeta was charged with murder after he allegedly set a woman on fire in Toms River, New Jersey, while she was sleeping on the F train at the Stillwell Avenue terminal. That incident happened on the morning of December 22, a few hours before Hochul’s announcement.
The victim, Debrina Kawam, once worked for Merck Pharmaceuticals in the early 2000s, but most recently lived in a homeless shelter in New York.
Zepetta’s hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. He told the NYPD he was drinking too much 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 nefarious actions,” Democratic Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said of the case.
Earlier this week, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins of Brooklyn allegedly pushed an unsuspecting man into the path of a South Ferry 1 train at the W 18th Street station in Chelsea.
Hawkins ran away at first but was soon caught near Columbus Circle and Central Park, according to reports. The injured victim’s survival was hailed as a miracle, as he fell into a “ditch” between the tracks while being run over by the train and was taken to hospital by ambulance with head injuries.
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Hawkins was previously arrested for physically assaulting a police officer in Queens. His father, Shamel Hawkins, told the New York Post, “We think somebody put something in his weed.”
Shamel Hawkins said that Kamel has been “acting strange” recently and that he “needs help” but still refuses 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 allegedly stabbed in the head and hip while waiting for the 1 train at 110th Street and Broadway. The station is normally located in one of the safer areas of Manhattan, near Columbia University, St. Ivan and famous diners in the sitcom “Seinfeld”.
Another man was stabbed while waiting for the 2 train at 14th Street and 7th Avenue on the same day, according to the media release.
Meanwhile, the authorities found 22 Tren de Aragua migrant gang members during a search of a residence in Crotona Park in the Bronx last month. Federal police tracked the ankle monitor of Jarwin Valero-Calderon — a Venezuelan national originally arrested in Nassau County and under a deportation order — to the building.
Hochul said in an X video on her account titled “This week in New York,” that her “five-point plan to improve subway safety” has led to a 10% drop in overall subway crime since March 2023.
Hochul also said she would deploy another 250 National Guard members to participate in Joint Task Force: Empire Shield.
In its December report on crime statistics for November, the NYPD said subway crime dropped 15% that month from 240 reported incidents to 202 and a 6% year-to-date drop from 2,137 to 2,002.
The NYPD said the subways recorded their safest year-to-date numbers in more than a decade.
“We’re all in this together, and while the downward trends in violence and disorder across New York City are very encouraging as we enter the final month of 2024, we have much more work to do to ensure the public safety that New Yorkers deserve,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch in a statement dated December 3.
However, New Yorkers have generally felt less safe on the MTA lately.
“Kathy Hochul needs to resign,” commenter Chaya Raichik — or “LibsOfTikTok” — wrote on X after noting some of the recent subway incidents and claiming some of the recent subway robberies were committed by members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
“Of course he won’t resign. These people only care about their power and privilege,” FOX Business host David Asman wrote in response. – Only New Yorkers can get rid of it.
“Daniel Penny for governor,” another X user commented, referring to the man acquitted in the death of a crazed straphanger who threatened passengers earlier this year.
MTA President Janno Lieber promised during a transit board meeting in March we’re not “going back” to the mid-20th century when the subway was incredibly unsafe. “This is a nightmare for New Yorkers,” he said after learning that Carlton McPherson — described by neighbors to the Post as “a little bit of a mess” — recently fatally pushed a man in front of the 4 train bound for Woodlawn at 125th Street in Harlem.
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MTA President Janno Lieber and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. (Getty)
Mayor Eric Adams he also addressed public opinion in statements earlier this year.
“Public safety is real safety and that’s how people feel,” he said in March. “We know we have more than 4 million drivers a day and a reliable system. We know we have about six crimes a day out of those 4 million drivers. But if they don’t feel safe, then 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 meeting in March, they will not “hand over our city to anyone”.
