After a the rise of violence in the New York subway in recent weeks, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said security cameras had been installed in “every subway car” in the city, which she said would help police fight and “solve crimes even faster.”
This comes amid a spate of violent crime incidents on the New York subway system, including a homeless woman burned alive by an illegal immigrant and a man is pushed in front of an approaching subway train.
It also follows high-profile the trial of ex-Marine Daniel Pennywho was charged but later acquitted of murder for his actions in defending a subway passenger from a mentally unstable homeless man named Jordan Neely.
Hochul, a Democrat, praised the deployment of 1,000 National Guard members to patrol the New York subway, saying, “Public safety is my top priority.” She also took credit for the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) order to install cameras in subway cars, which she said has now been completed.
HOCHUL SLAMMED FOR SAYING IT MADE UNDERGROUND SAFE SAME DAY WOMAN BURNED ALIVE ON TRAIN
Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced new plans to address rising crime in New York’s subways. (Getty Images)
“The recent rise in violent crime in our public transport system cannot continue – and we must get to grips with this crisis,” she said. “I ordered the MTA to install security cameras in every subway car, and now that the project is complete, those cameras are helping police solve crimes even faster.”
Hochul went on to emphasize that “many of these horrific incidents involved people with serious untreated mental illness,” which she said “is a result of the failure to treat people who live on the streets and are disconnected from our mental health care system.”
She blamed lax state laws and “nearly half a century of disinvestment in mental health care and supportive housing,” which she said had “directly contributed to the crisis we’re seeing on our streets and subways.”
HOCHUL DELIVERS HUNDREDS OF NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS to the New York City subway system
Police investigate at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn after a woman was set on fire and died in a subway car in New York, Dec. 22, 2024. Police believe the woman was sleeping on the train when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Hochul said she would introduce legislation that would change New York’s laws governing the forcible removal of the dangerous mentally unstable persons improve the process by which a court can order certain individuals to participate in assisted outpatient treatment.
“We can’t fully solve this problem without changing state law,” she said. “Currently, hospitals can admit individuals whose mental illness puts themselves or others at risk of serious harm, and this bill will expand that definition to ensure more people get the care they need.”
Despite those commitments, Hochul has been criticized for not being stronger in protecting New Yorkers who ride the subway.
“The governor just talks and does nothing,” said Curtis Sliwa, an activist and founder “Guardian Angels”, a citizen law enforcement group known for patrolling and assisting subway passengers.
‘GUARDIAN ANGEL’ FOUNDER CRIMES NEW YORK CITY SHELTER POLICY AFTER WOMAN IS SET ON FIRE
Members of the Guardian Angels participate in a subway station security patrol to prevent crime on June 11, 2021 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Sliwa told Fox News Digital that Hochul should “use her power” and call out individual members of the state legislature who refuse to support legislation to commit the emotionally disturbed to state psychiatric hospitals.
“She needs to tell them that she won’t sign any of their initiatives until they support her subway initiative,” Sliwa said.
He also argued that the MTA further fueled violent crime by allowing fare evasion to “explode to the point where 30% of subway riders don’t pay their fare.”
“The governor needs to take back control over who comes in and out of the system,” he said. “Without control over who comes then all the other initiatives of the governor will result in more tax money being wasted with little or no results. Everything will change when you limit who comes on the subway.”
CRITICS WARN OF ‘DANIEL PENNY EFFECT’ AFTER WOMAN BURNS ALIVE IN NYC SUBWAY CAR AS TRAFFIC WATCHED
Police are investigating at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn after a woman was set on fire and died in a subway car in New York on December 22, 2024. Police believe the woman was sleeping on the train when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
New York City Council Member Joe Borellia Republican, meanwhile, blamed Democrats for instituting anti-crime policies that led to more violence in New York.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Successive Democratic governors have closed mental health facilities and undermined the very system that she now says we need,” Borelli told Fox News Digital. “What we really need to do is look at the bail reform and ‘raising the age’ laws that her party put into effect in 2019 and see how the trajectory of criminal behavior has increased after that.”
