The subway crime that Jimmy Sumampow had been listening to about in recent times — in addition to his personal expertise — had already led him to make plans to go away New York Metropolis. Then, on Friday, he noticed a video on-line of the capturing on an A practice this week.
“I’m scared,” mentioned Mr. Sumampow, 46, after seeing the video. Mr. Sumampow lives in Elmhurst, Queens, however plans to board an Amtrak practice on Monday for Florida, the place he has a brand new job and an house lined up. “I really feel I ought to transfer out for some time and see if New York takes motion and will get higher,” he mentioned.
For Elise Anderson, nonetheless, the capturing didn’t elevate her stage of concern.
“I wouldn’t say I’m any extra scared,” Ms. Anderson, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident, mentioned as she waited on the Port Authority Bus Terminal subway station on Friday for a downtown A practice. “I feel we’re in one of many most secure cities on the earth.”
In interviews throughout town this week, New Yorkers wrestled with a query that reduce to the core of town’s identification: Is the subway system secure? Subway crime knowledge in recent times reveals a muddled image, and simply as they’ve in surveys of riders and polls of residents, New Yorkers’ opinions diverge.
However barely greater than per week after Gov. Kathy Hochul despatched the Nationwide Guard and State Police into the subway to extend safety and assist ease New Yorkers’ fears, the capturing appeared to underscore the boundaries of legislation enforcement’s potential to enhance security underground.
The episode passed off on the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, the place the Police Division maintains an outpost, Transit District 30, that’s repeatedly staffed by officers. Moments earlier than the capturing, two further officers entered the station to examine the platforms and practice vehicles, Kaz Daughtry, the Police Division’s deputy commissioner of operations, mentioned at a information convention on Friday.
If protections like these, plus the 1,000 Nationwide Guard troopers and different legislation enforcement personnel promised by Governor Hochul, will not be sufficient to stop one of many subway’s most ugly confrontations in latest reminiscence, what’s?
“They may ship the Military into the subway, I feel it’s nonetheless going to worsen,” Antonio Balaguacha, 56, mentioned Friday as he waited on a subway platform in Sunnyside, Queens, for a Manhattan-bound 7 practice.
Efforts by metropolis and state officers in latest days to enhance security have drawn a variety of opinions from New Yorkers who depend on the subway. Some riders felt comforted by the presence of the Guard troopers.
“I haven’t seen the Nationwide Guard but, however I don’t assume I might really feel safer of their presence,” Patrick Bovie, 27, mentioned on Friday as he waited for a G practice in Brooklyn.
“I really feel higher seeing them right here,” Anna Puello, a 47-year-old resident of Higher Manhattan, mentioned on Friday.
Latest surveys by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority present {that a} important share of riders, although not a majority, don’t really feel secure on the subway, with many citing erratic conduct by different passengers amongst their prime considerations.
The info on subway crime paints a extra nuanced image. Annual figures from latest years present that main crime on the subway decreased barely in 2023 in contrast with the 12 months earlier than, at the same time as ridership rose.
Whereas the full variety of main crimes was comparable in 2023 to the years earlier than the pandemic, the system has nonetheless regained solely about 70 % of its common day by day ridership, suggesting the per-ride crime fee is increased right now than it as soon as was. And a few classes of crime that trigger New Yorkers explicit alarm, resembling felony assault, have risen far above prepandemic ranges.
In 2024, general crime within the subway is up 13.2 % by means of March 10, in contrast with the identical interval in 2023, however down 6.6 % from the identical interval in 2022.
Officers have confused that the possibilities of any rider changing into the sufferer of a criminal offense are statistically distant: The 570 felony assaults recorded final 12 months — the very best quantity in many years — came to visit the course of greater than a billion rides.
However in a latest tv interview, Ms. Hochul defined that knowledge does little to assuage individuals’s fears. “I can present you all of the statistics on the earth and say, ‘It’s best to really feel secure as a result of the numbers are higher,’ however you’re the mother on the subway along with your child in a stroller,” the governor mentioned, including that it was the general public’s notion of subway crime, not statistics, that knowledgeable her resolution to deploy the Nationwide Guard.
Some riders, nonetheless, worry the surge in officers and troops will result in extra racial discrimination; some consider the discrimination has already began. Pleasure Richardson, a photograph producer at HBO, stood beside a Penn Station subway entrance on Wednesday as law enforcement officials searched her bag.
“As quickly as I heard about this, I knew I used to be going to be stopped,” mentioned Ms. Richardson, 39, who lives in Brooklyn. “I knew as a result of I’ve an enormous bag and I’m Black.”
Talking at a information convention on Friday, Jeffrey Maddrey, the Police Division’s chief of division, mentioned there was a must implement “high quality of life” legal guidelines like fare evasion, which he famous might result in extra critical crimes. The person who began the struggle that led to his personal capturing on Thursday entered the subway with out paying a fare, Mr. Maddrey added.
In February, Mayor Eric Adams ordered 1,000 further law enforcement officials to patrol stations and trains. Ms. Hochul adopted up final week by stationing 750 Guard troops at numerous stations, augmented by 250 personnel from the State Police and the M.T.A. A spokesman for Ms. Hochul didn’t reply to requests for remark.
“The presence of a uniform makes individuals really feel higher, and if the Nationwide Guards or the State Police need to add to that presence, I applaud that,” Mr. Adams mentioned throughout a information convention on Tuesday.
Just a few demonstrators responded to the governor’s mobilization with a small protest on Friday evening in Union Sq.. The demonstrators had been outnumbered by law enforcement officials, journalists and curious passers-by, a few of whom agreed with the organizers.
“I don’t assume the police preserve issues secure,” mentioned Tiffany Bailey, 21, a canine walker who lives in Brooklyn. “I feel they simply instill a way of worry in us.”
Others mentioned the protesters didn’t perceive the fears of using the subway. Jesenia Ramirez, a 44-year-old entrepreneur, prefers the trouble of buses, and the expense of taxis or rental vehicles, to the nervousness she feels when she takes the practice. A part of her concern, she defined, is that as a result of the subway system is so sprawling there isn’t any manner for law enforcement officials or Guard members to patrol all of it.
“They can’t be in each practice automobile or in each practice,” mentioned Ms. Ramirez, who lives in Manhattan.
As Mr. Sumampow rode the 7 practice to Instances Sq. on Friday morning, he mentioned he had seen the elevated police presence at some stations, but it surely didn’t change his plans to go away town. A few month in the past, he mentioned, three males tried to steal his pockets as he entered a subway station close to his dwelling. He escaped as a result of he hit one of many robbers together with his elbow, he mentioned, and a close-by pedestrian yelled for the police.
Now Mr. Sumampow removes all of the money from his pockets each morning earlier than he leaves dwelling. And he has purchased a one-way practice ticket to Florida.
“I’m going to flee for some time,” he mentioned. “However I’ll preserve my house right here. If New York will get safer, then I’ll come again.”
Julian Roberts-Grmela and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
